HP Reloaded
by Rafaelout
Summary: Harry James Potter, a young war veteran the master of Death, is transported through space and time into another dimension thanks to the Dark Lord. He is now in a world where his family is alive and his brother is the BWL. Watch as he climbs through the Wizarding world from rock bottom and proceeded to take it by storm. HP/FD. Gray Harry, Strong Harry. Smart Harry.
1. Chapter 1

**Well I have a couple of things to say before we began with the story. **

**Firstly, for me mid-day meal is Lunch, Night-time meal is Dinner, I have no idea what supper is and breakfast is well… breakfast obviously (it seems that one is universal), I will be using these terms a lot in the story and thought to clarify any confusion before it occurs. If you have a problem then I humbly request your pardon as well as state that I have no intention of adjusting what I have just written.**

**Secondly, if anyone would offer to be a beta-reader, I would appreciate it… as well as some instructions as to how those work. A lot of people tell me I should get a beta-reader, though no one says how to get one, or how they work.**

**Well, my rant is hereby over and I have to say that I thank you for bearing with me, though it still feels like I am missing something…**

**Oh Yeah, I neither own nor have any affiliation with the Harry Potter series…**

* * *

One thing that one could never called Tom Marvolo Riddle, commonly known as Lord Voldemort, was stupid. Evil yes, Crazy yes, Insane yes, but not stupid, unless there was a complete different meaning to that word, one could never truthfully call him that. This was an orphan who had absolutely nothing and ended up bringing Wizarding Britain to its knees and nearly conquering it altogether, on 3 SEPARATE occasions. A person like this could certainly NOT be called stupid.

Voldemort knew that his Horcrux's were being targeted, he knew that the diary, ring, cup had already been destroyed and though he knew that it was unlikely that the Diadem had been discovered and subsequently destroyed, it was still a possibility. He had only one secure lifeline, and that was his familiar, Nagini and only a stupid person would bring such a thing into a battle zone, the chances for it to be destroyed, though slim were still there. However if he gave the illusion that it was destroyed, then on the off chance he fell, hopefully the person that did him in would be lulled into a false sense of security which he could capitalize on until he was ready to make his return.

The plan worked perfectly and his resurrection for the second time was completely unknown. Bone of a father forcibly taken, he had the entire skeleton and there were enough non decayed or contaminated bones there for 273 resurrections. Flesh off a servant willingly given, again something that he had more than enough off, there would after all be many in Britain alone would were eager to serve him, especially after the war. Blood off an enemy forcibly taken, now there was the problem… While he would have preferred to have taken Potter's blood again, it was near impossible considering who he was always in the limelight, not to mention that the last time he did so the boy had managed to escape, something he seemed to have a real knack for. No, Voldemort didn't need the risk since he was in a much worse state of affairs than he was in that graveyard where he had undergone his first rebirth.

Fortunately there were other options… options that would yield just as much fruit as Potters blood would. The Dark Lord had initially chosen Potter because he was the one who had vanquished during the first war, there by incidentally being recognized as his greatest enemy (a title which he would truly earn in the years to come). That being said the magic that governed the dark arts considered the blood of a betrayer to be just as potent if not more than the blood of an enemy.

The Death Eaters who had pleaded Imperious after he had fallen would not be considered as betrayers by the Dark Magic, as they were simply attempting save themselves after they had thought that their lord had fallen… Nor was he willing to risk Severous Snape, for Voldemort himself was not sure of his allegiance at that point and should it be so that the Potion Master was loyal to him, and he had used his blood for the ritual… well the consequences would be dire…

Fortunately both Draco and Narcissa Malfoy had made their side clear in the battle at Hogwarts, loyal to Potter who was his one true living enemy in Wizarding Britain, despite swearing their loyalty to him. They had betrayed their lord and were considered as betrayers by the dark magic and their screams as he took their blood would be one of his fondest memories after his third rebirth. Then along side Lucius, their minds were broken and remade to suit his needs. Lucius, his now loyal pet, granted him access to the Malfoy family's wealth, and placed in charge of all logistical and transactional matters, for that was where his strength truly lay. Narcissia was reborn and retrained into become his left hand and his fiercest witch, so as to replace her sister Bellatrix, who had fallen during the battle at Hogwarts. Draco, who showcased remarkable combat abilities now that he no longer had a pampered prince's and coward's mind and became the strongest wizard in his service, his battling abilities mirroring Voldemorts, save with less power and experience.

Safe to say that this time his resurrection was completely unknown to the outside world that was until 4 years later after his second defeat at the hands of Harry Potter he made his reappearance when he attacked the Hogwarts express and held its passengers for ransom. That was the start off the second war and it was not just against Britain and Ireland. But against a majority off the Magical Europe, he knew that year by year the magical community was getting smaller and smaller and he was determined to put an end to it, the survival of Magic and its wielders was always his goal and to accomplish that he had been recruiting and spreading his agents throughout magical Europe ever since that night Wormtail had resurrected him in the graveyard. And even after his second _death_, the preparations had slowed down, but despite that, he was able to get everything in place, after which he made the final attack.

What he had not counted on was the utter lack of knowledge that his counterparts overseas possessed about Muggles. In Britain and Ireland he was able to rein his follower in, declaring outright war on their magical communities while keeping their Muggle counterparts largely ignorant to it, unfortunately in places like Albania, France and Bulgaria, his followers attracted to the attention of muggles and thus the world at large was introduced to the magical world, in the worst way possible.

The muggles fought against the magical, who were in a civil war with each other, and of course there were those places like U.S.A, Japan and India who sided with their magical communities against the world at large. Thus World War 3 began, where Magical fought Magical, Muggle fought against Muggle and most importantly Muggle fought against Magical.

The results were catastrophic, in less than a year the overall human population of the world numbered less than 100,000 (which was approximately the magical population of Wizarding Britain before he started hisoriginal campaign). He knew, well before that then, that he had to fix this… and so he did. While his followers were busy fighting the war he gathered the smartest of those he had with him and began researching a new project. With the Mirror of Erised, Darkest of Dark magic, the Sands of Time, and the world's knowledge of both of those subjects, he set out trying to find a way to return his soul, or if that was not possible, his memories back to the time off his original resurrection.

And now it was done, after years of research (thanks to extremely liberal use of time turners {shame they couldn't be used in battle}) it was complete. His followers stepped back as the mirror glowed with a purple Aura. He smiled as Nagini slithered out off his lap before he rose out from his black throne. However, he only had a few minutes to smile and admire their handiwork before the room descended into chaos.

The windows off their warehouse they were currently in (the ritual had to be done on land without any serious magical protection such as the Fidelius charm, or even most protective wards for that matter) simultaneously broke as SAS (Which undoubtedly the least damaged special force in the world due to the simple fact that the WORLD War barely touched muggle Britain for some bizarre reason) descended from it and the front and back door's of the warehouse broke as Goblin Warriors in full armor charged in. Still they were far to late stop him as he broke into a run straight to the mirror. However just before he was half way there a great wall of fire suddenly appeared causing him to back track before a sword wielding Veela burst out of it and headed straight at his precious Nagini. He didn't try to defend her for two reasons, 1) he knew she could handle herself, and 2) there was only one Veela left in the world and if she was here, HE most certainly would be.

Sure enough barely a second after he finished that last thought the wall of fire died down and there stood the Master of the Deathly Hallows himself, his emerald eyes shining with hate. Harry James Potter, and the last living member of his family, Fleur Weasley nee Delacour. It seemed ironic, to him. They both had been a torn at his side since well his first move in this war, and now here they were, preventing him from succeeding in his last. Lord Voldemort waited no time in firing no less than 3 killing curses straight at him but with agility that almost seemed like second nature to the youth he easily dodged the flying curses before firing his own in retaliation.

The Dark Lord snarled, but he had a different focus. Unlike last time when he his aim was to kill this constant torn at his side his aim was now directed at getting behind him and straight into the portal. Apparatation and Portkey wards had already been erected, by himself no less so that was out. He would need to either charge him in order to get him to move out off the way or circle him until he was next to the mirror before diving straight into it. That was all the strategic thought that he had time for though as one of the SAS had brought a bazooka and shot it straight at Nagini who was barely able to get out off the way. The explosion launched Voldemort's precious Horcurx straight into the air and Fleur wasted no time in capitalizing on it, beheading his familiar with the Sword of Gryffindor. Voldemort screamed and shot a killing curse at the Veela who took it straight in the chest.

"Confringo" Harry screamed as he shot the most powerful blasting curse he had ever cast straight at Voldemort, who quickly turned and put up the strongest shield he could in that limited span off time. It didn't work, as when it hit the blast was so powerful that it shattered the shield and completely consumed the Dark Lord. Unfortunately the Boy Who Lived didn't get away scot free as the force of the blast shot him backwards, and straight into the portal.

It was strange really, a moment ago Harry had been fighting for his life, yet now he sat calmly in what looked like an exact replica of Dumbledore's office, and yes he still remembered what it looked like even after all these years. Harry was calm, cool even. His life, ever since his birth, had been dominated by one thing, getting rid of Voldemort, something that was finally complete, and he had lost so much to succeed. He lost his entire family, twice thanks to that monster. The first time had been when he had been just one year old, and the second when he had been twenty-two, after almost exactly a month after Voldemort had attacked the Hogwarts Express (and announcing his return to the wizarding world) he attacked and massacred the combined Weasley, Delacour and Potter families in one move. The only survivor had been his sister-in-law, Fleur Weasley nee Delacour.

He smirked at that really. They both were so different yet so alike. They were both sought after for things that they had no control off (Harry's Fame and Fleur'sVeela allure), they were both Triwizard champions, they both had married Weasleys and rumors of their respective partner's infidelity ran rampart through the Wizarding World, not just Wizarding Britain, and it was something that they couldn't do a thing about as due to the magical nature of their vows, it was impossible for a divorce, and even if they could they never would simply for the sake of their children (though Harry sincerely doubted that Ginny second child was his). And they both lost their families to Voldemort's hands.

Harry hoped he could build a new life with her, when the war was finally over and they had ended the Dark Lord, but that was no longer possible considering that He killed her, just before he killed Him. Harry was wondering if he was dead for he knew for a fact that his Occlumency was good enough to detect and subsequently dispel most illusions, and Headmistress's McGonagal's office looked nothing like Dumbledore's, and even if it did he was on the other side off the world fighting in an abandoned warehouse against the person who had lead to the ruin off the world, how on earth would he have ended up in the Headmasters office.

"You know I would have never guessed that with how much you hated the headmaster, this would be the location that your sub-consciousness would choose for us to meet" said a voice that immediately caused Harry to turn around to see the person who had had long straight crimson hair that went down along her back, smooth almost perfect alabaster skin and facial features that resembled Fleur's. She was dressed in simple yet elegant Black gown and had a Scottish accent and her eyes, well they were red, though unlike Voldemorts where corruption and hatred were pliable, hers were, though warm, intense, like someone who had who had seen things that would drive most people insane.

"Regardless of what I feel for that man, Hogwarts, and especially this office was a symbol of perseverance. It had been around for centuries and yet still stood proud and strong." Harry replied with a smile "And the portraits of the various Headmasters and Headmistresses through the ages are those of the people who made it so."

"Few people have ever thought about it like that and almost none of them possessed my Hallow's" she replied and Harry's mind which was sharp even before his training as an auror caught on immediately. She smiled and said "I'm glad that you figured it out, and before you ask, no you are not dead, well not yet at least"

Harry looked confused for a moment before he remembered the recent battle and said "I was blasted back into the mirror…. And they were doing some kind of ritual to it."

"I'm glad you caught on so fast Harry" Death said "You see Voldemort, that foolish mortal who fancied himself a God, had already given up on this world and was trying to travel to another similar to your own and would have succeeded if he had walked through that mirror. However you are the only living soul who did, second's before it was destroyed and you will be the one to go back in time."

She smiled and got up and started to move in the office saying "There have been times in the past where I have had to intervene before, the Deathly Hallow's for example. History tells that I appeared to the three brothers after they had crossed a river that had led to the death off many. What it does not tell you was what exactly those three brothers were. Antioch Peverell could probably be described as one off the Darkest Wizards in history and had already found the path to immortality and was on the verge of attaining it, before I intervened and hand him the wand that lead to his death. Cadmus Peverell was obsessed with his love, even after her death, which was not that uncommon in that time. What was uncommon was what he was attempting, and that was bringing the dead back to life and he was succeeding, and so I gave him the stone to stop his work which would have ultimately led the world into eternal warfare. And then there was their youngest brother and your ancestor Ingots, A brave man who constantly tried to get his brothers to give up on their ambitions and move on with their lives. His gift was simply that, a gift with no ulterior motive or meaning behind it and though unforeseen it kept his line in the light and his descendents helped change the word for the better, many a times. For he started the Peverell line which became the PenDragon line which then reverted back to its original name before it became the Potter line."

"I know what you are wondering and to answer, you are not dead Harry, not even close. You soul is presently traveling through the strands of space and time to the world that Voldemort had accessed through his ritual. It was an ideal time for such a chat as well as a chance to ensure that when you arrive you don't think that you have gone insane and start blasting everything in sight." Death replied "However there are things which you must know about the world in which you will live in… In this world, you were not born alone, rather on the night of your birth there were two souls brought into this world as Lily Evans Potter gave birth to twins, you and your older brother Charles Potter. The night that Voldemort came knocking, your parents were at a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix and your Grandparents gave their lives to defend you. Your Grandmother died in your mother's place executing the same ritual that saved you the first time around, and with you the Britian'sWizarding Community."

"And while Dumbledore may have made many many mistakes in his long life, making me grow away from my fame was the right thing to do. I am assuming that this was not the case as thanks to my brother's and my status as the boys-who-lived my family and I grew arrogant" Harry said before immediately realizing who he was talking to. "I-I'm sorry for speaking out of turn Milady."

"Don't be Harry, it will be better if we have a conversation rather than a dialogue" Death replied kindly "And you are mistaken, for Dumbledore had ensured that your brother alone got that title despite the fact that Riddle targeted you as you were a better fit with the lines of the prophesy, and while your family did grow arrogant, you did not for the simple reason that your family spent so much time with the chosen one that they didn't spend enough time with their other son."

Harry looked like he had been slapped as he quickly began to say "Did they –"

"No they didn't" interrupted Death quickly and putting Harry's fears at ease. "Though then again, Tom Riddle's childhood wasn't that bad either."

Harry eyes widened as she continued to speak "He steadily grew darker and darker, but the one thing that prevented him form outright turning into a Dark Lord was because of his nature, a nature you seem to share… One day he literally looked into the mirror and decided that he didn't like what was looking back, but with things as they were, he thought he only had one way out… and he took it."

With the way that Death had phrased it and the tone of her voice when she said it, it only took Harry a moment to recognize what she actually meant, and he looked down in sadness .

"He is with me now and hopefully he will find happiness in his next life than he did in this one" said Death "But the method he chose to carry it out through, wasn't that damaging to his body and it is in that body that you shall be reborn into, should you choose to Harry."

Harry looked thoughtful as about a hundred different thoughts ran through his head, but first he had to ask one question "Why?"

"Two reasons really" she said "first and foremost is that as master of death you have the power to intervene. Other mortals do not have the power required to do so and aspect like me are forbidden form interfering directly. However you being the Master of the Deathly Hallows puts you someone in the middle, giving you the power to intervene, without the restrictions from doing so. Secondly you have to understand that every single prophesy can be divided into two main types. One type warns about an oncoming calamity, the other tells you how too best end an occurring calamity. For example the prophesy in your third year warned you about Voldemorts resurrection and the prophesy about you had ended the first two of Voldemorts's wars in the best way …"

"In this world the chosen one is dead" said Harry "and from what you say I take it that the second war will be long and devastating to Magical Britain."

"Not just Magical Britain for after Voldemort conquers it he will conquer its mundane counterpart and then began World War 3, and I am sure you already know how that ends." Death replied and Harry did remember, after all he had just ended it a few minutes ago. He then realized something and said "Hang on if I was the best way to end Voldemort, the how on earth did he survive to attack a third time."

"Because of Dumbledore" Death replied "Almost everything he has done has been with good intentions, but he was old. He also possessed the three most important positions in Britain, and had an idealistic view of family, which is ironic considering the disaster that was his own. Ten years of malnutrition and the emotional and physical trauma of being treated as a slave had left its mark on you, not to mention that when push came to shove, you were poorly trained, poorly informed and badly funded. Had that not been the case you would have been astute enough to have recognized Snape's true loyalties and used that to get rid of Nagini and had that failed you would have ultimately put an end to that Horcrux in Godric's Hollow. Instead the Snake survived and was well hidden until your world literally went to hell. In this world however had Harry not ended himself he would have grown darker and darker and though he ultimately would end Voldemort, he did so only to take his place and unleash a new wave of terror."

Harry eyes went wide as he absorbed everything that death had said before his eyes hardened in determination and he said "Very well then, I accept… though I only ask that you let me witness his life till now so I do not make a mistake when I take his place."

"Your terms are acceptable Mr. Potter, though you must understand that if you do this then you will no longer be the master of the Deathly Hallows. Is this acceptable to you?" Death said and Harry nodded in agreement. "Very well then,I have a gift for you, as well as a peace of advice. First my advice, which is well pretty straight forward; find my Hallow's and unite them as they are much stronger together than they are apart. Do not be afraid of using them and do not be afraid of my power Harry for I have judged you worthy of wielding it… And as for His soul piece, that did not happen in this life though you will retain you ability to speak Pasteltongue. And as for my gift, well you will find out what that is soon enough for I will never leave my champion alone…! Good luck Mr. Potter."

* * *

Four hours… that is how long it took to watch his alternate self's life till now… though when you think about it, it wasn't that surprising. After all a good majority of a kids life is spent learning how to crawl, then walk, then run, then there was also learning how to talk and eat and so on… really normally a person can only remember what happens after they have passed the ages of four and five, though they tend to forget as they grow older.

There were a few things that Harry noticed… firstly in comparison to his childhood with the Dursleys, his counterparts life was practically a picnic. There was literally absolutely no physical abuse involved and very Very little of what could barely be classified as verbal abuse… heck his life was practically a picnic, but then again Death said that Voldemort's childhood was nearly the same. Actually when Harry thought about it, he had more reason to go dark than twice whatever foolish justification both Tom Riddle and his (Harry's) counterpart had… combined, which was actually kind of sad when one seriously thinks about it.

Of course what his counterpart wanted and could never get was something that all kids wanted despite their claims otherwise and that was attention. The only crimes that James and Lily Potter were guilty of when it came to their second was negligence and the fact that they usually ignored whatever Harry tried to do to get their attention, and sometimes even praised his brother for the things that Harry did. It drove his counterpart to do things that his parents couldn't possibly ignore and soon enough he began to get addicted to them. It was circumstances and bad choices that drove his counterpart to end his own life but from what Harry could see his parents subconsciously did care for him, it just seemed that they had consciously forgotten that fact.

Sirius and Remus… now there was the sad part. Thanks to his parents being ALIVE in this world Sirius was never framed, though Pettigrew had managed to escape. This had many affects on the world, for starters with two of four Marauders alive and well, Remus decided to stick with them, not to mention that the Auror department, who were not suffering from a loss of their best Auror and the shocking betrayal of their second best Auror were much quicker to respond to the Longbottom's call, and though Crouch and Rabastin had been captured, Bellitrix and her husband had managed to escape. And although there were too late to save Neville's mom, they did manage to save Frank Longbottom. Another major difference in this world was that Andromeda and Nymphodora were Blacks, as Sirius had reinstated them into the family. Not all changes were pleasant however as Ted Tonks had been killed by the insane Lestrange couple who had then decided to attack the recently promoted head of the DMLE Amelia Bones who had taken over when the previous head had decided to take a leave of absence and focus on trying to heal his wife and raise his son. Fortunately no one was killed and the insane couple had been apprehended, though details were sketchy.

That wasn't that sad part though. No the sad part was the simple fact that they refused to see what was right in front of them. Harry would have thought that Remus would have immediately noticed what his counterpart was heading towards after everything he had to go through… His thinking was both right and wrong at the same time. Remus Lupin after becoming one of the last free-living Marauders and facing the bigotry of Wizarding Britain for twelve years would have certainly noticed. Remus Black (who had adopted the name after marrying the widow Andromeda Black, four years after her husband's untimely death), Godfather of the Boy-Who-Lived, aligned by marriage to one of the most powerful house's of Wizarding Britain and aligned by a bond of the strongest friendship to THE most powerful house's in Wizarding Britain as well as a publicly declared War-Hero of the war against Voldemort, didn't. And though he had never failed to get Harry a present for every occasion that he could as well as just wishing him well from time to time, he, just like Harry parents, paid most of their attention to his brother.

Sirius Black… Harry Godfather. There were many times that the man was away, doing his job as an Auror, just as there were many a times that the man had ignored Harry in favor of his brother. But he was still there. Unlike James, Lily or even Remus Lupin, Sirius Was There! He was there for his Godson and it was both a good and a bad thing. It was good that Harry had someone to connect too, it was good that he had someone there for him, someone who his counterpart adored. But, and to understand this Harry had to actually understand the differences between the Light and the Dark. He had always thought that those two terms were meant good and evil respectively, but that was about as true as Sirius betraying the Potters in his home world. Sirius Black was a Dark Wizard, and Harry's counterpart wanted to grow up and be just like him, unlike the head of the House of Black however, he had no one to guide him or tell him where to draw a line. Sirius Black was both, the reason why Harry's counterpart was corrupted by the Dark Arts and the reason he was still good enough to realize enough where the path he was heading down would ultimately end.

Still Harry enjoyed spending his time with him. It was truly beyond words to describe the feelings he had when he got to spend time with his Godfather. Sure Sirius wasn't the exactly the same man he knew as this one hadn't been forced to undergo what could literally be described as eleven years in Hell on Earth. But at the same time it was truly a blessing. It certainly made up for the way his parents ignored him.

And with that Harry's train of though went back to the negligence and ignorance, while they were what drove his counterpart dark, worked in hiss favor… After all He wasn't an eight year old seeking the attention of his parents, he was a war-veteran of one of the first joint Wizard-Muggle wars since the time of Merlin and Morgana Ley Fae. Since while Major Wizard and Muggles conflicts often mirrored one another it was a long time since Wizards and Muggles fought side by side as being said, the war opened his eyes to a lot of things, many of which he needed to fix if his kind was going to continue. With the daily advancements of muggles, there was no doubt that one of their advancements would no doubt reveal the Wizards world, but the problem was that there was a high chance that said world would die out before that day came. Harry wanted to prevent that and in order to do so he needed power and in Wizarding Britain Power was the average of 3 things, renown, gold and knowledge. It would be near impossible to gather enough of the first two to make any sort of difference until he entered Hogwarts, so he turned his attention to the third. Harry already had a high amount of knowledge and ability when it came to strategic thinking, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and the subjects required to be an Auror as well as a good insight into the Political and Judicial systems of the British Ministry of Magic. So he turned his attention to much more subtle and intricate arts such as Runes and Alchemy.

* * *

It had been 3 years and the best way Harry could describe his life was… different. In truth while for any normal child the environment was not exactly ideal, for Harry it was something he enjoyed. During his original childhood he had practically been a slave to the Dursleys every whim and needs. To the Wizarding World he was a Hero and had the fame of legends. During the war he was a Warrior and a Leader to those magical that fell under his command. Yet here he felt like just another person, he felt normal. Harry knew that if he was even half successful in the goals he had set for himself his name would be recognized far and wide… he would NEVER be just another person, and so he was determined to enjoy this feeling while it lasted.

Academically speaking he had been making good progress. His research in Runes and their applications was going swimmingly and he had kicked himself more than once for not learning about this during his original life, it would have made things sooo much easier.

Harry musings suddenly stopped when he sensed a burst of fire behind him. Spinning around he took out two silver daggers holding them in front of himself in a defensive posture. An act which proved unnecessary as he looked at the Phoenix that was flying right in front of him, at first he thought it was Dumbledore's but immediately discarded that idea. While it was similar to Fawkes it seemed more slender… and seemed… more graceful. There was no doubt that this Phoenix was a female in Harry's mind, but who's was it? And who sent it? And why did it seem so familiar?

'Familiar' that word seemed to echo in his mind as he gazed at the phoenix, before his eyes widened considerably as he said in surprise "Hedwig?"

A beautiful cry from the majestic bird confirmed that it truly was his long lost friend and owl.

* * *

**For all of those who have read my other fanfictions, I will say that I am not abandoning them, well save for one. things have just been heretic so for me. **

**I actually wanted to do a wrong BWL fanfic when I first started writing, but i decided to put it off so I could get more experience first,  
Anyway, I hope that you all liked the first chapter and Please do NOT forget to comment.**

**Also, I not sure about Fleur, depending on how my final draft for the next chapter looks, I may add her in the next chapter or wait until a dozen chapters are done.**

**Thank you all for reading this fanfic  
**

**Rafaelout out**


	2. Chapter 2

**I had absolutely no claim to any part of the Harry Potter Franchise **

* * *

At last that fabled day had arrived, the day when Harry knew he would be fully entering the politically inclined, backstabbing, ruthless game of life that just happened to be Wizarding Britain.

He had already successfully purchased (or stolen from the Potter stores) everything he would need for his first AND second year at Hogwarts, amongst several other things. A guide to Phoenix's for starters was one of the first things that he had purchased, as well as several basic (yet slightly advanced) books about Arithmacy and Ancient Runes. The books in the Potter family library were solid text on the subject's as well as several more obscure books that had weren't available to the general public. However most of them all relied on the fact that the person who should have been studying them should have already had some kind of basic foundation in the subjects. Harry had to make several assumptions as he had carefully examined and studied those texts, almost like missing several pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. You knew what it was suppose to look like, yet you didn't have the full picture.

However, if his past has thought him anything it is that you should never really assume something unless you have no other choice. The most prominent example of this was a man named Severus Snape. A man whom both Voldemort and Harry utterly believed faithfully served the Dark Lord, a fact that had proven false during the first battle in Hogwarts since the time of the Founders themselves. He had leant a valuable lesson that day, never assume something is true because it seems to be, keep digging and digging until it has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt and then dig a bit more.

In many ways Arithmacy and Ancient Runes were the best way to look at that. Magic had originally risen from a combination of those two very subjects, and it would be near impossible to understand the theory of magic, ACTUALLY understand the theory of magic (and not the rubbish they thought during the first year at Hogwarts), without them. The books he had purchased from Flourish and Botts were text meant for those who had a practical understanding of the two subjects without have the proper time to study the theory in detail, as well as the third and fourth year textbooks on those two subjects. He also had time to make his way down to Nocturn alley and shop for some more obscure books as well as several items; a certain magical cabinet and an item called the Hands of Glory were on that list.

Usually the sort of people who wouldn't want anyone knowing who exactly they were would be the ones to use poliguce to transform themselves into muggles and roam the alley, more often than not they usually used the form of kids. Although those kinds of people were few and far between and it was thankfully due to his past experiences when he attempted a reformation as well as an infiltration or two that he knew exactly how to act…. On a side note he had found out that the only one place he could possibly acquire Peruvian Instant Darkness Power was on the far side of Nocturn alley. He wondered what exactly Mrs. Weasley would have said if she had found out that the Twins knew THAT alley so well before their seventh year.

"Ah, Mr. Potter" said the Wandmaker Ollivander as Harry entered his shop "I had expected you to be here alongside your brother, but that is of no importance as you are here now."

Harry had offered the old man a pained smile. His 11th birthday present was to get up late in the morning (Hey, it was his birthday, he was allowed to oversleep) and walk down to find his parents and his brother floo back into the cottage along with several books and accessories that were obviously his brothers Hogwarts supplies. He didn't mind as he watched his brother go through the usual routine of getting all the attention while he was steadily ignored.

Well that was not exactly true; he spent quite a bit of time discussing pranks, and coincidently maps with the twins and speaking with Susan Bones and Tonks (who yes, still went by that even though she was named Nymphodora Black). He also spent bout ten minutes with Remus and around half an hour with Sirius or Padfoot, since the guy kept on changing back and forth between the two forms. All in all, it was probably one of THE best birthdays he had ever had, both in his last life, this one and his counterpart's life. (And that was just sad…)

Harry was brought back to the present as Ollivander said the words "I wonder…"

Harry too wondered what the old Wandmaker meant since he knew for a fact that his brother had the Holly and Phoenix wand, he had overheard his parents discussing that fact with Padfoot and Moony. His heart nearly dropped at the sight of the wand when Ollivander opened its case, for there inside its velvety case laid the Elder Wand in all its glory. Harry wondered if it was Ollivander who acquired it in this world instead of Gregorovitch, or if Grinderwad had never stolen it from him and the wand passed to Ollivander when the German Wandmaker died or if Dumbledore decided it would be for the best (or for the greater good, as the man would usually say) if he left it with Olivander and did not use it. It did not matter as Harry knew what would happen the moment he picked it up and sure enough a shower of Black and Silver sparks descended from it as the Elder Wand declared its allegiance to its new master.

Just when it looked like he was out of trouble this had to happen… And he still had to deal with the goblins and Harry knew for a fact that things would no go smoothly considering that the date he had chosen to go coincided with one significant date in his original life… And suddenly Harry was glad he had the Elder wand in his possession.

* * *

"Mr. Potter, you do understand that you will need your guardian's approval if you do open up a secure vault."

"Of course I do Master Teller Ro'Khan" Harry replied as he looked up at the goblin, but before I commit to a vault I would like to see the vault in question."

"That is… acceptable" said the Goblin "Do you have any preferences in security or your vault number?"

"Yes in fact, is there any unused secure vault, or perhaps a vault number in the seven hundreds?"

"Yes, it seems we do" the Goblin replied, Vault seven-hundred and ten is presently free, would you like to view it?"

"Of course" Harry replied and the Goblin got out of his counter and started leading the way down towards the carts and Harry followed, though not before he saw another goblin take his place. Smiling slightly at their efficiency he stepped into the cart before it zoomed off into the tunnels. Harry let out a yell of joy, he had always liked high speeds and the wind on his face, regardless of whether he was riding a roller coaster, a Broomstick or a Gringotts cart. And at the speed they were going it wasn't too long before the reached their destination.

"Here we are Mr. Potter" said the Goblin as he turned around before seeing his eyes widen in surprise as he looked at the scorching remains of what was once the door's of vault 710 "What exactly –"

"Look out" screamed Harry as he pulled the goblin towards the back of the cart, and not a moment too soon either as a bolt of green light flew over the exact spot where the goblin had been standing seconds ago. Taking out two silver daggers he flung them at the place where the spell had originated from while shouting "Permission to use my Wand Teller?"

"Granted" the goblin immediately and Harry jumped out of the cart flinging spells left right and center as the goblin immediately leaped to the front of the cart, and placed his had on a rune, activating it shouting "Security breach at vault 710, seal of the corridor and send backup ASAP, note my client has already engaged Hostile with my permission, client is an eleven year old."

Quirrel, who was in disguise heard exactly what the Goblin was shouting and knowing he had but seconds before his enemies re-enforcements arrived shouted one word in pastletongue, putting all his magic into it "Fiendfire!"

Dark fames of cursed fire burst out of his wand and Harry using well honed abilities in dealing with the Dark Arts immediately moved to counter it. Quirral, who hadn't been expecting an eleven year old to be able to confine his fiendfire recovered almost immediately and dashed towards the left end of the doors which unfortunately wasn't covered with the currently contained cursed fires that Harry was trying to maintain and with a very complicated wand maneuver, and the host of the Dark Lord literally turned himself into what seemed like a being of shadow in order to escape. Unfortunately it seemed like the future DADA professor had forgotten about Ro'Khan, who was standing in wait with a goblin-made sword, and with a vicious swing of his sword he seemed to cut off part of the shadow which immediately burst into flames. The shadows let out an inhuman scream before flying down the corridor at high speeds.

"Teller" Harry shouted as he waved his wand frantically, erecting ward after ward to keep the cursed flames at bay "I won't be able to hold this for long, I suggest you escape."

"And what about you wizard?" he asked "can't you erect a ward strong enough to keep the flames at bay long enough for us to escape?"

"I may be able to, but there is no guarantee it will hold." Harry shouted in response "This way at least I can be assured of your survival."

Ro'Khan was shocked, as far as he knew all wizards or witches were instinctively selfish creatures, and always looked out for themselves first. In fact he had rarely heard of a wizard who was noble enough to sacrifice himself for a being of another race, especially for the goblins for whom they had a long history of antagonism towards, and none of those wizards or witches were from the last half a millennium.

As far as the goblin knew this Wizard had nothing to gain with dying here and everything to lose. He had also seen that the boy had never shown any sort of bigotry towards his race (though he would be the first to admit that the boy could have been hiding it well, though that seemed unlikely) and he had a very high amount of skill and knowledge if the display here was any indication. This boy would make a good ally for the nation in the future and Ro'Khan would make sure that, should they both make it out of here alive, that the boy would get exactly what he deserved in the way that was most profitable to both parties involved. Right now though there was no way he would abandon his client to his fate and just hoped that he was strong enough to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

The Goblins entire though process took just a few moments, and barely a moment later a cart containing half a dozen wizards and a dozen goblins appeared. They immediately rushed out of the cart and beginning the process of handling the wild Fiendfire and Harry, when he felt it was safe enough cut off his spells, took a few steps back and promptly collapsed on the ground panting heavily.

"Ro'Khan report!" said a grim looking goblin who was wearing chainmail that seemed to be made out of a dark purple colored metal, with gauntlets greave's and sabaton's that seemed to be made out of the same material but were also outlined with gold. He also wore a black tabard with the golden emblem of Gringotts on it.

"My lord, perhaps we could get someone to tend to the boy while I explain to you what exactly happened" Ro'Khan asked. He hadn't been expecting that particular goblin to lead the reinforcements, but perhaps he could use it to his advantage "And perhaps call the boy's parents as well?"

Before the other goblin could answer they both heard a single raspy voice, say "No!"

They both turned to face the source of the voice, which was none other than Harry himself. The boy seemed to be literally drench sweat and it seemed that steam was arising from his skin that seemed to have taken on a reddish hue "Ro'Khan please, though I have nothing to offer you in exchange I ask that you prevent people, especially my parents, from knowing that I was here, please."

Harry hadn't even moved his head from the spot where his body seemed to be frozen if place and steaming as if it were slowly evaporating. Both the goblins noticed that when he had finished speaking he had closed his eyes and hadn't opened them. They weren't alone either as a back haired witch with bright blue eyes walked had seen what had happened and had quickly made her way to Harry knowing that her colleague's wouldn't need her help any longer to deal with the remaining fiendfire. With a few smooth waves of her wand she case several spells over the body before she dropped to her knees right in front of him. Her wand immediately went back into its hostler as she placed one hand on his neck and the other exactly above his heart.

"Master Ragnarock, he needs to be taken to the medical ward" she said as she looked up at the older armed goblin. "He appears to be in no immediate danger however he will need medical aid if he is to stay that way. Also, and please forgive my impudence for saying this, but as far as I know there is no protocol for this type of situation. It would take about fifteen to fourty-five minutes for the boy to recover with the proper attention so there is really no need to call for his parents, as the lad seems intent to keep them in the dark. If they come searching then I suggest a full disclosure, but until then I suggest that we stick to the boys wishes for he must have a reason for what he did, and no ordinary eleven year old would be able to handle fiendfire on his own, few adult wizards can.

* * *

When Harry awoke, it was next to a soft melodious tune that seemed to echo around the room, it took him a second to place the tune. It was a Phoenix's song, Hedwigs song, and it was simply melodious.

He closed his eyes to berate himself for how foolish he was, just because it had been easy to deal with Quirrel the first time didn't mean that it would be so again. At that point of time he was standing inside a magic inhibiting room holding a possession that his enemy desired beyond all else and would have been to easy to break by accident. This time however, there had been nothing that prevented the soon-to-be DADA Professor from holding back, worse he had even reason to go beyond his ordinary limits because should he have fallen Gingotts's wards would have trapped Voldemort's specter form unlike Hogwarts, who's wards had immediately expelled the specter the minute he had cleared the mirror room. In addition Voldemort would have never chosen a weak host regardless of how desperate he had been at the time. There was a reason Quirrle had become the DADA professor and it was not because he was possessed, rather it was the BECAUSE of his abilities and post that Vodemort had possessed him.

Then came the duel. Regardless of how talented Quirrel was, this should not have happened, regardless of Harry's current eleven year old body. He was a man who had gone toe to toe with the Dark Lord numerous times and had even made him flee several times before. He was the best warrior in the Last Battalion. There was no way that Quirrel should have been able to keep up with him like that, much less keep him occupied long enough to case Fiendfire which was a complex and time consuming spell on its own. This only served to highlight just how much off his edge and ability Harry had lost over the years of his new childhood.

He slowly opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. He was lying in a bed with several soft pillows and a white blanket covering him. He could see he was in a room painted completely white. To his left was a table with a vase, which had a bunch of flowers in it, and a bookshelf with several books on it. To his immediate right was a silver perch, which Harry suspected was goblin made, where Hedwig had perched herself on. On the wall, there was a wide open window which allowed Harry to see the beautiful view of Diagon alley that it offered. Beside it were four chairs, two of which were presently occupied by the witch who he knew had performed the initial diagnostics check down in the vault, the other was Ro'Khan, and his presence was something that really surprised Harry.

"Mr. Potter, it is good to see you awake after that terrible incident" said the Goblin when he saw his client looking at him "On the behalf of Gringotts I would like to extend my deepest apologies to you."

"I accept your apology Teller Ro'Khan" Harry responded, "Tell me, have my parents been informed about my condition?"

"No they have not, though I am surprised that they haven't noticed your absence by now" the woman beside him responded. Wizarding families were after all, notorious for keeping track of their children.

"I'm sorry, and you are?"

"Katniss Bell, heir of the house of Bell" she replied "One of Gringotts trained medic's, and before you ask Mr. Potter, let me assure you that I too will keep your secrets as per Gringotts policy"

"Good" Harry replied "Let me tell you a story then Medic Bell, Teller Ro'Khan, once upon a time in a loving family 2 sons were born, they were loved and treated equally up until an evil man attack their home and one of the boys caused him to flee. Slowly but steadily after that incident the family began to drift apart. One of the twins was pampered with love and care and everything he could ever ask for while the other was slowly neglected, and eventually forgotten. The neglected child did everything in his power to get his parents to notice him, but eventually it was not enough. Finally the boy took whatever little possessions he had and put them inside a magically expanded bag that he had… _borrowed,_ from his brother. He work up well before his parents and went and outside the house and sat just outside the gate. He sat there from early dusk to late noon, and when his parents still hadn't shown up he ran to the side window of the house thinking that surely something bad must have happened that prevented his parents from coming to look for him. Perhaps his brother had gotten badly injured, or perhaps one of his families close friends was in danger and his parents were doing all they could to aid them. Do you know what he found? He found his parents sitting on the dinner table dotting over his brother and enjoying a good meal, without a care in the world, and looking like there was absolutely nothing wrong."

Harry was looking into the faces of the two people in front of him, Katniss Bell was from an ancient house, that usually produced Gryffindor or Hufflepuff members with the occasional Ravenclaw. He knew just by looking at her, and the fact that she had been one of the rescue team, that she was no stranger to blood gore and death. But unlike the muggle world where it was not uncommon, in the wizarding world neglect was practically unheard of and she could read between the lines well enough to know that Harry was talking about himself, and the fact that such behavior had come from a house that was seen as light and good and housed the boy-who-lived. It was more than a little shocking, and Harry was thoroughly impressed with her poker faced expression besides looking more than a little pale, having already guessed how the story would end.

Ro'Khan though was different. Harry couldn't get a read on exactly what he was thinking though from what Harry could make out, he seemed more… determined?

"I resolved on that day that I would live life on my own terms and no one else's, but to do that I need several things, and amongst those things is financial security, and I can't do that if my father has access and knows about everything I do" Harry finished.

"And you could have had that easily if you really wanted it" said the Goblin as he looked Harry straight in the eye "With your abilities it would be no doubt easy for you to keep your money secure."

"Perhaps" Harry said "But that is not the only thing Gringotts provides. Fixed deposits, financial advice, real estate, information are amongst some of the many things that Gringotts can provide Teller Ro'Khan and I am sure you are perfectly aware of that."

"You did not come here to create a vault for yourself did you?" he asked

"On the contrary, that is exactly what I planned to do. I had planned to open up a secure vault in the seven hundreds section, which is one well away from the Potter's and Dumbledore's influence" said Harry before quickly adding "And don't you dare deny it. While the Gringotts is run by Goblins those wizards with true power do hold some influence within certain sectors of your bank, and as for client security, do not forget that I am a minor and the Potters do have a right to look into my financials according to both Goblin and Wizarding laws. But by opening a vault outside of their realm of control I can at least be informed by my manager when it is happening and how much they do know. James Potter would be aware that I had opened up a new vault inside Gringotts, he would then check up on my withdrawals to see that I would be transferring funds from my trust vault to my own personal vault. He would then have three choices, either leave thing as they are, transfer my trust vault to my new vault or try to disown me, because as per Goblin Law, that is the only way he can close my Trust Vault. The first two situations would work in my favor Ro'Khan, while it would be only too easy to let the public at large know about the third. Should that happen James Potter would be facing a scandal of truly massive proportions, not to mention a lot of negative press as well as legal action taken on him by many Houses. And the best part, I know for a fact that it would be his best friend Sirius Black who would spearhead those efforts."

"Let me amend my statement then, you did not come here _just _to open a vault… and truth be told, I think, that this is the first time that I have ever heard of someone being able to achieve financial security with something so trivial as a vault" said Ro'Khan "But then it does make sense considering that financial security is made up of 3 basic simple steps. The first would be to secure a steady source of income. Assuming your father ignored the existence of the vault then you would be able to move out almost all of its wealth in one swell swoop and deposit it in your vault knowing that your trust would refill at the end of the year, and had he tried to disown you there would be no doubt a number of darker families willing to adopt you simply to get back at the Potters, no doubt trying to mold you into a darker wizard. However, as a result you would gain access to their wealth as well as having knocked your family down a coupe of notches… I'm impressed."

The room was silent for a moment as all three occupants descended into their own thoughts. Katniss Bell who by that time had already recovered and was wondering how exactly a family as friendly as the Potter's could basically ignore their own flesh and blood. She was also wondering exactly what ramifications today's… _incident _could have in light of this new information. Ro'Khan and Harry too were in deep thought as they looked at one another. Harry had after basically stated what he would have done if they hadn't run into Quirrel. His primary plan was already underway though it would all depend on what Ro'Khan would say.

"There may be another option available to you Mr. Potter, if you would be inclined to take it"

"Oh, and what would that be Teller Ro'Khan"

"As I have said earlier, you can't open a vault without alerting your guardian's; however it may be possible to ensure that the Potter's are not the required guardians. The Heir of an Ancient House for example, cannot be under the guardianship of a rival house."

"Teller Ro'Khan, I am sure that you know this but I am the youngest son. Presently I have no claim to the Potter ring and neither do I want it to tell you the truth. And despite Lord Black saying that would make me his heir, he hasn't formalized it so it isn't I'm not, furthermore even if he included it into his will it would be open to subjugation by other members of the black family and I know for a fact that the Malfoys would have a pretty good chance of getting it overturned so that it would go to their son and heir, Draco."

"True" he said "But you forget that all old houses are interrelated in some or the other way, it may be possible that you are the heir of another of those houses. All we would have to do would be to find it and formalize it and then organize a guardian who would act on your behalf with respect to that particular house. I will warn you however that the process will be painful."

"I am no stranger to pain Teller Ro'Khan, but do forgive me for asking but don't we need the Inheritance manager's approval to go ahead with something like this?"

"We do indeed" reply the goblin "And I'll be sure to… _convince_ my colleague to grant his approval.

"Wait, colleague?" asked Harry causing the goblin to give him a smile before he walked out the door. Harry nearly groaned as he realized just who he had been speaking to all this time. Goblins were very careful with how they spoke. That and they had a particular ranking employee system, and if you understood it you would be able to understand just how powerful the goblin you were speaking to was in the bank. When they said assistant they spoke about someone who had a lower job rank in the same department, junior would be a lower job rank in another department, boss is pretty obvious and senior was someone who possessed a higher rank in another department. By calling someone an associate they meant that they had the same rank in the same department and by calling someone a colleague they meant someone who possessed the same rank in another department.

Harry called Ro'Khan Teller because he had been the first teller goblin that was free when he had entered the bank. A teller were the basic grunts that handled the day to day dealings with ordinary Witches and Wizards. A Senior Teller would manager a group of Tellers, though they would also tend to the Heirs or Lords of Ancient and/or Noble Houses if they came in, or take over if the department was short staffed at the moment. A High Teller's would manage the Senior Tellers, and the Teller Overseer, who was incidentally the highest chain in that particular department would be the one to watch over and guide all the Teller's of the Gringotts branch he was working in.

From what Harry had been able to gather there were several departments in the bank. The Teller Department, The Property Department, The Finance Department, The Security Department, The Inheritance Department, The Research Department, etc. The leaders of the First three reported to a Goblin simply known as the Director, the next three reported to another Goblin who was also known as Director and both those Directors reported to the President. There was also a third Director who oversaw the managing of the Ancient and/or Noble Houses, but going into that division was another separate matter… However, the heads of the Departments that it contained weren't as high up as the heads of the aforementioned departments.

So basically Harry had been dealing with one of the top ten Goblins in the bank for the full day and he didn't even know it. This would either turn out very well thanks to the Quirrel incident, or very badly… he would just have to see how it goes….

Harry James Potter currently sat in a golden chair that kind of bore resemblance to a throne. Gold Bands circled his wrist, arms torso neck and legs, preventing him from making even the slightest movement. Up and down his arms were dozens of golden needles that had already pierced his skin. In front of him Harry could see a floating roll of parchment and a quill deep red quill which harry was prepared to bet was a blood quill as it looked exactly like the ones he had used during his fifth year. Three separate Goblins stood there, the first was none other then the Teller Overseer Ro'Khan, the second, was not, as he had expected, the head of the Inheritance office but instead the Director of that division Ragnarock. And the third was simply an officer from the Inheritance department.

"Are you ready Mr. Potter" Ro'Khan asked

"I am Overseer Ro'Khan, please begin" Harry said. Barley a moment after he had said those words Pain rocked through his body. It was like Voldemort's Crutacius curse all over again. It was endless, and unlike all the other times before he couldn't do a thing to stop it. Heck he was the one who had asked for it and now he would have to bear with the consequences.

Director Ragnarock had explained that the process would take a minute regardless of how much he wanted to find out. So in addition to finding a house which he could take up headship, he had also included a test for magical gifts, aptitudes for various magical abilities and a information about his Genealogy which would go back at least 5 generations.

The process took a minute, just a minute, but for Harry it felt like hours. Every second of the pain was seemed like an eternity onto itself. A small rational part of his brain now finally understood about the true horror of what the Longbottoms had gone through, but that was just a small part as the majority had been taken up with screaming for release from the pain.

Eventually it was over. The needles floated out of his arms and the blood quill had stopped writing on the parchment. His restraints simply vanished as the Parchment floated to the director while Ro'Khan looked at it curiously. Harry slowly stood up and stretched. Despite all his senses screaming in protest he knew that it would be better to stretch after heavy magical torture, (unless you were fighting for your life or needed to make a quick escape of course) before he walked over to the two senior goblins as the third got to work with the cleaning of then equipment.

"Director Ragnarock, Overseer Ro'Khan, if I may ask, what is the verdict?" Harry asked

"Well to be frank, the results are… unexpected to say the least" Ro'Khan replied "Let us start with the Black Family first. Both your paternal and maternal grandmothers are members of that family. The latter was banished however until your Godfather added her back into the family along with a dozen other squibs. Unfortunately she was added post mortem so I am guessing that your mother never knew. Combining that with the fact that your godfather is the current head of that family and currently have the most claim over the heir-ship of that family."

"I see" said Harry "Unfortunately the Black family is not a viable option, so please continue."

"Well based on your lineage you could easily have been declared the head of several other families however in most cases either the ministry has disbanded those families or the time period to claim their vaults have expired and Gringotts has already seized their possessions" said the Director himself before his expression turned into a slight sneer "However in order to grant you the prestige I am sure you desire, there are only three families available the Perevell's, the Graunts and the Pen'Dragon's."

"That being said however, after World War Two the ICW met and launched an investigation into the symbol that the Perevell's were using" said Ro'Khan "They declared the family to be extinct however they were unable to seize the vault that the family had commissioned and the wealth and the powerful tomes it contained due to a unique lock that the family themselves had installed here in Gringotts."

"They must have been a powerful family to have been granted the honor of securing their own vault themselves." Harry remarked

"They were one of two wizarding families that helped us start the original Gringotts, right here where you are currently standing and ever since the Gringotts has been neutral ground for all the magical races." stated the Director "Getting back to the problem at hand. You claim the headship of the Graunt family as you are its heir by blood and conquest."

"Blood?" asked Harry, slightly confused.

"Indeed" said Ro'Khan "Despite the name your maternal grandfather made for himself in the muggle world using the family name Evens, he was born a squib of the Graunt family, the brother to the last head Morphin to be precise. And while he might have ran away at a very young age, he was never officially disowned. Furthermore our scans show that you vanquished the heir to that family almost ten years ago, thereby marking you as a potential heir, should you choose to claim it."

"Mr. Potter before you say anything else" said Ro'Khan "I must tell you that we are very well aware of who the last heir was"

"Well I guess I can trust Gringotts discretion to never mention are current talk to anyone else" Harry asked and received two curt nods in reply "Good, then what can you tell me about the Pen'Dragon line"

"Ro'Khan, you are presently dismissed" said the Director looking the goblin in the eye before turning to Harry and saying "Come with me, Mr. Potter!"

Knowing that this was not a request he complied.

* * *

Soon enough they were back in the cart heading deeper into the dept of gringotts. Soon enough the cart began twisting and turning through the labyrinthine passageways, sloping downward all the time. The had passed the Romaioin longhorn, the largest breed of dragons in the world and the one that Harry had used when he had escaped Gringotts with Ron and Hermione. They passed another, this time a Welish Green, which would have been a serious threat in this the constricting caverns and passageways that made up Gringotts. Finally the cart started to slow down and soon they stopped in front of a vault that just by mere sight Harry knew was even more secure then The Lestrange Family vault.

Two stone statues's stood on either side of the vault door. They looked just like the one from McGonagal's chess set which she had set up as a protection around the Philosophers stone in Harry's original first year, save for the fact that these ones were as tall as a Mountain Troll. The now eleven year old was prepared to bet that these were animated statues as well and that there were a serious amount of magical protections surrounding either one. The very door's to the vault were made of the same metal that Harry saw that armed goblin wearing when he had arrived with the rescue squad; pure black, but with a purple shine and a deep purple glow. Director Ragnarock got out of the cart and started walking towards the door.

"This chamber hasn't been used in a long time Mr. Potter and its existence has been almost forgotten by your kind" He said "Now, just too purely inform you Mr. Potter, the inheritance room which we used to determine your houses was at one end of the bank and this chamber is at another. Understand Mr. Potter the only reason I am doing, the reason you are the first human in this chamber in several centuries is because and only because Teller Overseer Ro'Khan asked me to. In fact he didn't just ask me to he called in a dept that I had to him. I am probably the first director to have ever been granted his position with an existing dept and if this goes bad for Gringotts I will literally lose my head. There is a good chance he will to. Do you understand how serious this is Mr. Potter?"

Harry's eyes widened but before he could say anything Ragnarock held up his hand and silenced him before the goblin continued to speak "However you must also understand that many of the vaults of the ancient families that the ministry disbanded still exist, and you can claim more than a few of them. Gold that lays waste in vaults is of no use to anyone. What I am going to do now is simple, I am going to combine all those families along with the Pen'Dragon and the Gaunt line establishing a new line. As per tradition you must claim the name of the most powerful family if you want to do this, and in this case that family is the Pen'Dragon. However as the Gaunt was once almost as powerful you will also have to find a way to include their Ancestral Totem into your new emblem. Come with me and we will decide what that Emblem will now look like."

The Goblin walked forward and Harry followed, frowning as she did so. He was in this world for less than a year already he was holding lives in his hand. But regardless of how much he wanted to simply walk away he couldn't. He needed the power of an Ancient and/or Nobel house at his back. The Potter's were never going to support him, and they were much to light in either case. Sirius was too close to his family for Harry to do anything covertly. Like it or not this was the best option he could take at this moment. Plus he owed the bank and his goblin comrades in his own world and he certainly wasn't going to betray them in this one. It would be a pleasure doing business with Gringotts once more.

* * *

**Sorry, i actually meant to introduce the Fleur's Family in this chapter but the chapter juts seemed to get away from me. **

**The connection to the Pen'Dragon is something I may exploit for powerful heirlooms in much later family, kind of like the Peverell family had the Deathly Hallows. **

**Also I'm sorry if the chapter seemed to drag on and I hope to begin Hogwarts with the next one. **

**Hope you like it...**

**Rafaelout out...**


	3. Chapter 3

**This Story was inspired by 'Travel Secrets' by E4mj and 'I'm still here' by Kathryn518**

**I do not own Harry Potter**

* * *

Harry was currently standing inside his room in Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow, smashing against his makeshift training dummy (a wooden log) with all his might. Ragnarock had really got him, hook line and sinker. Oh, he didn't lie about anything. Ro'Khan really owed him a dept and was doing this to repay him, Ragnarock owed Ro'Khan a dept and was doing this to repay his junior officer. But the Pen'Dragon line had disappeared over seven centuries ago. There certainly must have been other who had claim to the line, others who had tried to claim the line for themselves.

For strong and powerful houses like the Pen'Dragon's, Perevell's and Gaunts there were always conditions for succession, always some kind of test to prove that you were worthy of wielding the power that the house would grant you. For example; in order to become the heir and then the lord of the House of Perevell, one must possess all the Hallows, for the Gaunts, one must banish the current heir three times.

Those two tests were easy. Harry possessed the Elder wand and had stolen the Cloak of Invisibility from his father who had simply left it in one of the storerooms allowing it to gather dust. All he needed to now was to collect the stone from the Gaunt's shack. He had already caused the Dark lord to flee twice. The first was when he was one year old, the second less than a day ago.

It was the Pen'Dragon test that was going to give him problems. That family possessed three vaults, the first was simply a vault where all their liquid assets aka Galleons, Stikles and Knuts were stored. The second contained books, tomes, heirlooms and other items of value, the third vault which incidentally was vault number five in Gringotts otherwise known as the vault of Souls. Past the doors of that vault was a small room, no more than the size of your average bedroom, and it was made entirely from a combination of Silver, Platinum and Rubidium. There were three swords in that room, one that was buried right up to the hilt in a pure black rock. The other was buried up to its hilt in a pure white rock. The third just like its fellow sword's, was buried up to its hilt in a gray rock. Those swords were Ardondiget, Caliburn and Excalibur.

In order to become the heir to that house he needed to either withdraw one of those three swords. Something that was not as easy as it sounded. That chamber was littered with skeletons of those who had tried and failed, for if you were unable to free the sword from the stone then your hand was bound to it until you no longer drew breath.

Harry knew that Caliburn was the sword that Mordred had stolen form Arthur's court and used it to fatally wound the king during the battle of Camlann where he himself met his death. Caliburn was also said to have been wielded by Queen Guinevere herself. Ardondiget, the sword of the light, wielded by Sir Lancelot and then of course the legendary Excalibur, the sword of the kings which was wielded by King Arthur himself. The sword that allowed him to rule over Avalon and his kingdom of Camelot.

The problem was that since these three swords had been returned to their respective stones no other had been able to use them. That had been dozens of attempts to free the swords form their stones but it always ended in failure and death for the person who had attempted it. Eventually Potter family had decided that it was no longer worth loosing any of their family members to try and free the swords and they eventually forgot about them altogether.

But that was beside the point.

Harry was angry. He was angry at the ICW for disbanding the Perevell family and destroying their powers, for he would have been quite satisfied if he could have taken them for his own. Harry was angry at the Goblin Director Ragnarok for his deception, for the only way he could inherit what was rightfully his was if he managed to complete all three tasks.

But realistically he knew he could not take the Gaunt name. He was a Half-Blood and as such he could not take the name. Combine it with another house sure, but he could not take the family name for his own. The ICW disbanded the Perevell family and so he could not claim it for his own. He his only choice was to claim the Pen'Dragon family. But at least he could have had access to the former two's vaults when he had completed their tests. The amount of knowledge that those two families must possess must be enormous, and in the wizarding world Knowledge is Power.

But thanks to the goblin's deception he could no longer do so unless he claimed the headship of the Pen'Dragon family. Ragnarock had said that Ro'Khan and he could loose their heads over the fact that they had allowed a wizard the knowledge of how to enter the vaults of the Most Ancient houses of Perevell and Gaunt. The Director had made sure that Harry could never access those vaults without completing three tasks, each task having been tried by dozens and possibly hundreds of wizards and witches but none of whom have ever succeeded.

Harry knew that he had to get the power of an Ancient and Noble house on his side, well that or convince Sirius to make him the undisputed heir of the Black family.

Either way Harry would succeed, regardless of what it took he would succeed.

Platform nine and three quarters, with the beautiful scarlet engine of the Hogwarts Express, the sounds of parents running after and fusing over their children was truly a sight to behold. Harry smiled. For now regardless of who he was and what his ambitions were, he was just one unknown in a sea of hundreds of others. Having been on the other side of the Spectrum Harry took a moment to enjoy this sensation before his eyes narrowed considerably. There was after all no way _she_ should have been here after all.

But yet leaning against a wall that afforded her a clear view of muggle entrance and the train was a very pretty blonde haired fourteen year old girl who looked very similar to a certain younger sister of a girl he loved.

"Snap out of it Harry, there is no way that she could be here." He muttered to himself. Fleur was supposed to be in France on here way to Beaubatons in FRANCE, and not standing in Platform nine and three quarters. Besides if that was really her they there would be guys flocking all around her. After all, the younger a Veela was, the more difficulty she had in controlling her allure.

Yet despite his reasoning he was inexplicably drawn to her for some reason. The closer he got the more guarded he felt. There was magic in the air, yet this magic felt different, more primitive and, for lack of a better word, elemental. When he was close enough to he managed to look straight into her eyes. They were the same as those of Fleur's when he had met her during his fourth year at Hogwarts, yet these seemed different. They possessed an edge to that was similar to that of a veteran Auror, one who had seriously fought against evil and not done enough to simply get by. Her entire posture screamed danger and Harry's hand were unconsciously inching closer to his wand and a long silver dagger that was custom-made for his left hand.

When he was close enough to speak so as so as to not be overheard (if he disregarded the wards that surrounded them.) he spoke to her in the words of an ancient forgotten language that only the two of them were aware of "Ishnu–dal–dieb Lady Delacour"

"Ishnu–Alah Harry" she replied and while Harry's posture relaxed he was a whirlwind of emotions inside. This was his Fleur, the one he had fought side by side with when the world went to hell. Almost as if she had sensed his feelings she gracefully walked over to him and hugged him, drawing him closer to her saying "It is really me Harry."

"How?" he asked, his voice filled with raw emotion "How is this possible?"

"Death said that would never leave her champion to wander the earth alone" she responded as pure white wings burst fourth from her back and proceeded to wrap them both. "I do not know what her reasons were but what I do know is that I am glad we did so."

"Fleur your wings" Harry said even as he enjoyed the feeling of comfort that they brought him. It reminded him of his most treasured time during the war. Fleur and he had sat down beside each other, just looking at one another, their knees touching one another, as her wings covered them both. It was one of the few times he had felt at peace since Word War Three had begun. And despite the fact that they were standing in a different world in crowded station full of people who had probably not even gone through a tenth of what they had, he felt so utterly at peace in her presence, as if nothing mattered except each another.

"I placed many wards here Mon Ami, which I know you have sensed" she replied as she nuzzled him. "They will prevent us from being noticed."

"But I doubt they'll last for much longer" he said as he started to move back. Getting the message she too moved back and her wings started to contract back into her back "Hedwig"

There was instantly a burst of flames as his phoenix appeared and landed on his arm. He looked at the person who had stood beside him through so so much and he said as he stroked his familiar brilliant golden plumage "This is Hedwig Fleur. The owl who was my constant companion until she sacrificed herself for me when we fought against those Death Eaters after the Order came to collect me from the Dursley's. She can take you back to France… Fleur I won't be able to take proper care of her in Hogwarts, so can she stay with you for now?"

"Oui" the Veela replied "Harry there is one other thing that I must tell you. We are not the only ones who have been reborn in this world. There is another, a person is from a completely different reality."

"How will we recognize him?"

"He will be part of your year group in Hogwarts so I am sure that you will be able to find him quite easily. Also Death has said that he is willing to follow you, if you give him a chance too" Fleur replied. She paused for a moment as she considered her words before she said "Harry, do you remember what you asked me before we went to face Voldemort in the factory."

Harry eyes widened as he nodded, he had asked her if they could make a life together now that the way was almost over. He had never gotten an answer because just at that moment they had received a message that their troops had found Voldemort in the midst of a ritual and had already moved in to engage. And they had immediately flamed in to give the soldiers their aid.

"I do Harry, I do" she whispered as she leaned in close and kissed Harry on his lips. "Goodbye Mon Noith."

At that point Hedwig jumped onto Fleur's arm and they both disappeared in a flame. Harry stared at the spot for a moment, feeling the lingering taste of Fleur's kiss before whipping out his wand and started to unravel the wards Fluer had put up. He paused for a moment as he felt something… intriguing. There was something else mixed in these wards, something much more powerful… and Ancient. He closed his eyes for a moment… and tried to _see_ what he could not see. A moment later an image came to mind, it was of a black vertical stick inside a circle inside a triangle. The symbol of the Deathly Hallow's… The symbol of Death herself.

"Finite Incantartem" Harry softly said as he finished unraveling the wards that Fleur had put up in order to erase any lingering trace that she may have left. Before turning around and walking to the train. His mind was in a quandary. Why would Death resurrect Fleur now, why not when she had sent him back? Of course there was the possibility that Fleur had been sent back when he was, just that she hadn't gotten the chance to contact him. But why would Death add her own power into Fleur's wards? And what was with this third person? There were too many questions and not enough answers. He was happy that Fleur, his Fleur was here in this world. He had promised himself that he would try to make a life with her when everything was all said and done, perhaps he could keep that promise.

He entered an empty compartment and with a few notice me not spells on the door he sat down and began to think. There were plans to be made. The first thing that needed to be done was figuring out exactly how to take out a fully grown mountain Troll with only the most basic of first year spells. Really it was a miracle that Ron Hermione and he hadn't been killed that time. He had already made plans for Quirrel and plans in case those plans failed, as the original plan was to get rid of him in Gringotts and that failed quite spectacularly. Then there was getting the Philosophers Stone.

Harry absolutely refused to believe that all that guarded the stone was a couple of simple traps which a well trained first year could easily pass. And should he succeed in acquiring it, he would have to figure out how to return it to the Flammels in a way that wouldn't get him publically exposed, or exposed to those whose radar he wanted to fly under.

Last but not the least he would somehow need to restart the D.A, well at least under a much less obvious name. Harry knew without a doubt that he would need soldiers, men and women who were well trained with their wands and that he could trust. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that he could do everything all on his own. Dumbledore had done so and it had lead to the creation and sustenance of the monster known as Voldemort. Harry himself had tried that once and it had lead to the deaths of hundreds. No he would need an organization, made of those who would be loyal to him, of those who would be trained so much that it would take probably a dozen witches or wizards to bring one of them down.

Harry realized that he was planning to do what Voldemort had himself done during his early years. Creating an inner circle filled with wizards and witches who could easily hold their ground against superior numbers before raising an army. In fact despite popular opinion the current Pureblood Lords were not Riddle's true 'inner circle' in fact the only one's who remained from the original inner-circle were Barty Crouch Junior and Bellatrix LeStrange. The others had all died for their lord during the First Was and Voldemort didn't enough time to hand pick and train their replacements, so he chose the most valuable members of his army, (all of whom bore his mark and were referred to as his outer circle) to form the second inner circle before his untimely demise. Sadly they felt woefully short of elites that Voldemort himself had created before his bid for dominance and power.

Another thing that he had to do when he returned to Hogwarts was get back to shape. The experience in Gringotts had told him just how much he had lost his edge. It was something he would need to regain in order to handle the coming situation in the most efficient way possible. The third thing was to find and deal with this… unknown. He did not like having unknown elements lying about and besides Fleur had told him that this person was willing to be an ally.

Considering that the unknown was from a different reality altogether, perhaps Harry could be frank and tell him or here, everything he needed to. Dumbledore did imply that it was wise to have others to know what you knew so that they may aid in improving the situation, and that was something to agree with. Besides this person would be able to offer a completely different perspective for them to work with, and in Harry's experience, that was usually a good thing.

"Oh hello" said a voice. Harry looked up to see a young boy with jet black hair already dressed in his school robes. He was plainly a first year as his robes were plain black with the Hogwarts emblem on them. "Sorry, I kind of thought this compartment was empty, I'll go now."

"No, stay" Harry said as he took in the boys appearance. His skin was a bit more tanned then most of the Hogwarts Alumni, his English was quite good but his accent was something that Harry could not quite place. Regardless, this would have been a wonderful time to start making friends and one that he was not going to waste. "What's your name?"

"Rafael, Rafael Rivera" he replied "And yours?"

"Harry, Harry Potter"

"The Boy-Who-Lived?"

"Er no, that's my brother"

"Not really" Rafael said and Harry resisted the urge to slap the kid sitting across him and instead settled for saying "Could you really get more overt?"

"I was told that you would have known about me" Rafael responded "And truth be told I rather doubt I would be any good in a dance that I have never engaged in. So why not get everything else out of the way and get to the heart of the matter."

"And that being?"

"Deciding if I am trustworthy or not. We both know that you need people that you can absolutely trust and while I know a lot about you, you know absolutely nothing about me. Something that we need to remedy at the quickest means possible" Rafael said "You know what I am speaking off and I can assure you that I have absolutely no problem with it. Besides you can't deny that it is necessary."

"I have always been against that particular branch of magic but I can't deny that it isn't useful, nor that it isn't necessary" Harry replied as he eyed the eleven year old sitting across him before whipping out his wand in one smooth move, pointing it right between Rafael's eyes and said "Legilimens."

Harry saw flashes of the life of the boy sitting next to him. Flashes of an ordinary kid's life, one that was a happy life. Flashes of his celebrating with his family, flashes of how he enjoyed and treasured times with them. Flashes of a school life, of mistakes, many mistakes that the person in front of him had made, flashes of things that he couldn't undo, flashes of many regrets that the kid wished he could take back desperately. A scene where he saw the eighteen year old version of the kid in front of him moving in front of and pushing one of his classmates out of harms way before being mortally wounded, a wound which he later died from. A scene where he faced a panel of judges where they had determined that there was not enough good and/or evil for a decision to be made, so he was given a choice. Stay in limbo or be reborn into a new life. And Rafael didn't want to give up his identity, his sense of being so he chose to stay in limbo. Then Death herself came to meet him and gave him a way out, and the kid in front of him was very eager to take it. But he did ask one question first 'why?'

"Because despite returning Hedwig and Fleur to him, Harry will still be alone" she said to him "he is a war hardened adult in a world full of naive kids."

"And I am someone who he can connect to?" Rafael asked with the most incredulous voice Harry had ever heard and truthfully Harry could not blame him. They were literally nothing alike. Harry was a physiologically damaged kid who had grown up being thrown into one mess after another after he had started Hogwarts, only to have a family he had recently been inducted into, be brutally murdered before becoming a leader in a war that had encompassed the entire world. Rafael though was an ordinary school kid, hailing from a world where magic did not exist and an avid fan of a series of books… about Harry himself. They were absolutely nothing alike.

"No. Had I wanted someone like that there were hundreds of people I would have chosen before you…. I chose you because you have the potential to be a bridge that can truly connect Harry to his peers" said Death. She paused for a couple of moments before adding "That and several of my higher ups are annoyed with me and I could only choose someone stuck in Limbo."

"So basically the only reason you chose me is because I was your only choice?" Rafael asked. He had roamed across Limbo for what seemed to be a month but had never come across anyone else.

"…Yup…"

"I see…" Rafael responded "Well its better than being stuck here anyway, so yes I agree. Please Please Please return me to life with the gift of magic on that plane of existence."

Death simply clapped her hand once and suddenly Harry found himself sitting in a Hogwarts Train Compartment right across Rafael. He blinked a couple of times as he comprehended and organized everything he had just seen into the recesses of his mind before he growled and said "She's using us as entertainment."

"That she is" Rafael responded "But before you get too angry, think about this. Had you not accepted Death's offer or listened to her advice or did whatever she said to you or whatever, since I don't know exactly what happened in that meeting between you two, you may have been stuck in Limbo or you may have stayed in a dying world or you would have been in this world alone without Fleur, Hedwig… and myself. And I personally would have preferred your assumption as opposed to spending an eternity in Limbo… Harry don't think of this as being used, think of this as a second chance, a chance not to repeat the mistakes of the past… a chance at a new life!"

"… Your right Rafael, this is new chance, for the both of us" said Harry after a moment of consideration, before he asked "I remember seeing the books about… myself in your mind, but I also remember reading… several different versions?"

"Yes, there were others who were unsatisfied with the way the books about you were written and wrote their own versions of your life. Let me tell you about my favorite one." Rafael responded with a huge grin plastered on his face and Harry couldn't help but think that this was going to be entertaining.

* * *

The hours had past since the Hogwarts express had left platform nine and three quarters and in that time Harry had made a vow. He had vowed that if he ever got the chance to jump back and fourth between Rafael's original world and this one he would do so for no other reason then to track down the author who had written this extremely entertaining version of his life and tell him that he had done a great job.

The tale was beyond humorous and Harry found himself wishing that it was true. That version of him had carved out a legacy that was greater then Merlin himself in the span of a few short months, and that too mostly due to sheer dumb luck. What was most surprising was the fact that the story was not just possible but it was remarkably probable. The only problem with the story was mistakes here and there about wizarding locations and history, (many things were flat out wrong), but that was understandable given that the author had almost no knowledge about this world (which is obvious considering he lived in a world where magic did not exist) and those mistakes could easily be fixed.

There was also another version of his life where he used the press to get back at Britain's Ministry of Magic before ultimately finishing off Voldemort and his followers with a goblin ritual… While he doubted that the latter part of the tale was even possible the former part of it showed him several avenues of opportunity that he had not even realized he had. And he intended to use them when the most opportune moment came.

Harry had actually been reminded of Lockheart for a moment and during the time when he could think clearly (basically when he was not laughing himself silly or grinning like a maniac over the tale that Rafael was telling him) and though it pained him to say this, the true boy-who-lived actually respected the pounce. Don't get him wrong, Harry still hated Gilderoy Lockheart and was absolutely disgusted at the despicable way at which the man had earned his fame but he HAD read those books and had to give the man credit. The man was a skilled writer, no scratch that, he was absolutely brilliant. If Rita Skeeter, a woman who could get you to believe almost anything she wrote if you didn't already know the truth, could be compared to a good singer, then Lockheart would be right up there with the Grammy award winners. He was just that good, and it was for that reason and that reason alone that Harry respected him.

Hearing Rafael tell him about these fantastical versions of what his life could have been like, Harry believed without a doubt that if any wizard wrote that story then it could easily be the best pieces of wizarding literature in the entire wizarding world. He also knew that that Rafael was sort of an author himself and was determined to work with his new found friend on polishing these works of art and publishing them.

The compartment door opened and Harry's eyes nearly popped out, there standing in front of him was an eleven year old version of one of the best people to have ever come in his life, Hermione Jean Granger and it was almost like déjà vu when she asked "Have any of you seen a toad, one of our year mates has lost one."

Rafael smiled and said "May I have your name Mrs.…

"Granger, Hermione Granger" she replied

"Well Hermione, there is an old spell that we can use to summon things. A spell that I am sure will summon the toad." Rafael responded "I don't know it but my friend here does. What is its name?"

"Um, I don't know" she said "Can you please wait here, I'll go get Neville and be right back."

"Of course" Rafael replied causing Hermione to smile as she shut the compartment door and went off to look for Neville. He then looked at Harry whose expression clearly asked 'what do you think you are doing.'

"That is Hermione Granger, a girl who will soon be named as the smartest witch of her age and from what I know, one of your closest friends in your last life" Rafael said "She will be an extremely powerful asset to your cause as well as a good friend to us. Besides we both know that she and Neville too a lesser extent will be outcasts in Gryffindor and it would be good for them to have some friends who will stick by them."

"And I presume you are referring to yourself?"

"Oh no, I was referring to you" he replied and Harry did not respond, not that the other dimension traveler expected him to. It wasn't long before Hermione returned with Neville in tow, who immediately asked "Is it true, do you truly know a spell that will bring Trevor back to me"

At this Rafael looked at Harry who simply sighed before he raised the Elder wand and said "Accio Trevor the Toad."

Barely a moment later a small toad came soaring into the compartment right over Neville's shoulders and Harry, with the inborn reflexes of a seeker caught the flying toad and handed it back to its owner. Harry looked on the smile on Neville face and said "If you want I can teach you the spell, both of you."

Since all four of them were already in their wizarding robes none of them had to change, and since they all had nothing better to do, Hermione and Neville agreed and Harry found himself teaching them along with Rafael, the summoning charm.

* * *

"Abbot Hannah"

Harry watched as the young girl made her way across the hall and sat on the stool that Professor McGonagal had been standing besides with the sorting hat in one hand and a long scroll in another. They had just crossed the black lake and after the traditional meeting with the ghosts (which they denied despite _stumbling_ upon the first years every year), they were now standing in the Great Hall waiting for their sorting.

Harry eyes began to scan the hall, looking for any potential threats. There were a quite a few though none that he wouldn't be able to handle with ease. His eyes went up to the great hall where he saw Snape scrolling heavily as he stared at his brother, who was chatting with Ron Weasley. Quirrel too was watching the boy know as the Boy-Who-Lived. Professor Flitwick was scanning the first years, looking for potential Ravenclaws while Professor's Sprout and Dumbledore were watching them all with a warm welcoming smile.

Harry was surprised to note that Parvati Patal hadn't gone to Gryffindor this time but rather to Ravenclaw where she was soon joined by her sister. Then he watched as his brother confidently swaggered up to the sorting hat who immediately sorted him into Gryffindor. Harry name was called and soon enough he was sitting patiently on the stool as Professor McGonagal placed the hat on his head.

"Well now, this is a surprise…" said the Sorting Hat "You are probably the most unique student that I have ever sorted, a War-Hero of another world brought by Death herself into this one. Tell me Mr. Potter, what do you hope to accomplish?"

"You're in my head you should already know what I'm hoping to accomplish"

"You are certainly cheeky for a man who has known only war and death for the better part of his life Mr. Potter"

"Perhaps, I'm this way because I have lived through three years of peace along side versions of people who sacrificed their lives for me. Perhaps it's because I've seen the world go to hell that I can truly appreciate fun and joy for the truly amazing gifts that they really are. Perhaps because laughter is always a good way to hide the pain."

"And even now you feel a lot of pain don't you Mr. Potter?" the sorting hat stated "Yare are a person of many masks. You can be fun and carefree in one moment and be intense in the next. You have the ambition to save the world and change a country for the better. You have the cunning to work in the shadows unseen and unheard until it is time for you to step out into the open. You will be great you know, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness."

Harry eyes widened as he heard the words that were so similar to the ones that he had heard oh so long ago during his first sorting. He had come full circle now, the first time he sat as an eleven year old the Sorting Hat had tried to place him into Slytherin but he had somehow managed to convince it not to. Now however the Hat from this world had come to the same conclusion that its counterpart had. It would force him into the spotlight sooner than he had intended. A Potter in Slytherin, there hadn't been one since his family had taken up this name six hundred years ago. It would also destroy any chance for complete and utter trust. He would be a Slytherin and no matter what he accomplishes, he would always be looked upon warily and guardedly. But perhaps he could save this house from itself. There was a reason that Slytherin had gotten the reputation that it had.

"Indeed" said the Hat, its voice became much firmer and much louder now. Harry could pick up the sound of four separate voices, two male, two female. The Sorting Hat was after all, the voice of the Founders of Hogwarts "That house is a breeding ground for bullies and bigotry and has truly become a pit of snakes. The politics and ruthlessness in that house can utterly destroy a person and for too long we have been powerless to do anything to stop it. But you however, have survived far far worse than anything that house can throw at you."

The voice changed, now it was a smooth low masculine baritone that had an edge of steel to it as it or rather he spoke "This is a chance that we have never had before and will never have again. I beseech you Mr. Potter to restore order to the atrocity that is the house that I founded. Your abilities are formidable and your potential is limitless. You have the power to change my house and by changing it you will have made long strides to changing the school and the future of our world. I beg Mr. Potter to restore honor and nobility to my name and the name of the house of Salazar **SLYTHERIN!"**

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**Author's Note**

* * *

**Ok, first of I do agree that perhaps putting in the Pen'Dragon line was a bit Cliché… Hindsight is 20/20 **

**(Also would you guys mind if I just had him give up, purely on frustration and Simply focus on securing the ****Black**** name for himself)**

**Note the 'alternate versions of Harry's life' that I had wrote earlier about are actually fanfictions from this sight, one of them is 'Make a Wish' by 'Rorschach's Blot' which is truly a great work of art. The other is Poison Pen by GenkaiFan, an other great peace of literature.**

**The end of this chapter was greatly inspired by 'I'm still here' by Kathryn518…  
Also I think I have made quite a few mistakes in the Arthurian Lore. So are on purpose though some are because I am not as familiar with it as I probably should be. Just hope it doesn't put anyone off.**

**Kuvsousa;**** I'm sorry to say that I will not be getting to the family and/or Maurader **_**interactions**_** for at least another chapter. Most likely more!**

**Robert77833;**** no there will be absolutely no chance for a Harry/Lily paring, and yes, I have decided on a Harry/Fleur/Someone paring though I may be coming out a bit strong with the Harry/Fleur.**

**Dark Dragon;**** No offence but I think that those many relationships may be a bit too much for Harry as he is presently**

**NotSoSlimSh4dy;**** I actually planned on having Excalibur in the story but I thank you for giving me the idea to add Caliburn and Ardondiget to it.**

**Bao-Earthdragon;**** I had actually forgotten the spellings of the families name and had written what I had thought was correct… my apologies to that.  
Also I do agree that Pendragon may be a bit cliché, (admittedly didn't think things true when I added it), but unfortunately its done now, so I hope I can do the best I can with it.**

**Pensein;**** Thank you for your review, I am trying the best I can. I will admit however that in the coming chapters Harry may seem extremely powerful but please try to keep in mind that he will be going up against schoolchildren, (as in not fully trained) who are expecting to face an eleven year old who just got his wand.  
I will admit however I have no experience with romance (in real life or trying to write it) but I will try to do the best I can. Just hope it doesn't put you off.  
I would also like to point out that there was only one overly helpful goblin, but he possessed a lot of power in the bank. Hopefully I also adequately explained my reasonings that the Pen'Dragon vault hadn't been claimed (its not that no Potter had tried, its just that they hadn't succeeded).**

**Plums;**** Thank you for the review and I will take your advice under consideration. **

**Cerulean F. Revelle;**** I hope that you are pleased with the story so far and I am kind of flattered that my fic is the first Wrong-BWL story you have chosen to read.**

**Jh831;**** Hopefully I will**

**Emily;**** The mistakes in the family name is actually a misspelling.  
Sorry about that.**

**Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter so far; **

**Rafaelout out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I have absolutely no claim to Harry Potter or any related media and/or merchandise**

**This story was inspired by The Third by E4mj and I'm Still Here by Kathryn518**

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"Welcome to the most noble and most ancient House of Slytherin., the greatest of the four houses of Hogwarts. Most of you should already know the rules of our house but I will soon go over them for the few who don't, as we do have some new members after all" said Severous Snape to the assembled house of the snakes. "Every one of you and every single person who has lived inside of these walls are dangerous in their own unique way and it would be a grave mistake to underestimate any of your fellow Slytherins. We are a house who prize Ambition and Cunning above all. We are the house that works in the darkness to get what we desire. We are subtle, we are sly, but above all we are powerful in our own right…! However, outside of these walls we will be faced with prejudice which I doubt many of you have seen before and in order to survive the prejudice we must always stand united… I sincerely doubt that all of you will become, _as the commoners like to put it_,the best of buds, but any differences must be settled inside these walls. Either through words… or through wands, we even have a dueling arena in this house for just that purpose. However outside of these walls we must always remain united. We cannot afford to show even a hint of weakness, for the other members of the other houses will use this to capitalize on us and there by attack us and should this happen, I Will Not Be Pleased."

Severous paused for a moment and glared at the house as a whole to punctuate his words. Then the professor started speaking again, listing the various rules and norms, how to approach him with any serious problems, which teachers should be approached and which should not (namely the Headmaster and Professor McGonagal) and the importance (in the event that you do try something unsavory) of not getting caught. Throughout his speech he kept throwing subtle glances and making subtle gestures towards Harry and the rest of the House seemed to move slightly away from the dimension traveler with the exception of Rafael who stood by his new friend's side. Neither of them missing the _not so_ subtle message Snape was telling his house. He was not pleased that there was a Potter inside these walls, and they should not be either.

"There are a few unspoken rules here in the House of Slytherin and you will find out about them soon enough so there is no need to ask" he continued. "You will also notice that in addition to the main entrance of the common room there are twenty additional doors. To my left are the First to seventh year girls dormitories, the Potions Lab, the Medical bay, and the Girl's Prefects chambers respectively. To my right are the first to seventh year's boys dormitories, the House Library, the Dueling Arena and the Boy's Prefect chambers…."

"Didn't know Prefect's had separate chambers?" Rafael mounted to Harry who mounted back "Same here."

Inside your dormitories you will find your rooms. Each of you shall have your own with your name on the door. Inside you will find a bed, a desk, chair, toilet, sink and a shower head. Anything else you want you will learn to provide yourself with. Do not ask for the prefects aid in doing this as the answer will be No. If you have made a serious mistake and can't seem to resolve it then and then alone will you ask for their help. The Prefects are here only to correct you, not to do your job for you. One last thing, if you so desire then you can choose to bunk with others of your own age group. Speak to the seventh year Prefect and he or she shall see that it is done. If you _need_ something that is beyond your ability to obtain, my door is open to you."

And with his grand speech over Professor Snape shot one last glare at Harry, turned around and walked out of the common room. Rafael turned and looked at Harry and said "Well I don't think you'll be very popular down here Harry"

"I am the brother of the Golden Boy Rafael. I was never going to be." Harry replied before walking towards the seventh year prefect. "Now come with me"

"Sure, but may I ask why?"

"This house is dangerous Rafael, and it will be more-so for you once they discover your heritage, or lack of it" Harry replied "Once you get stronger you may request for your own room but right now I'm worried for your well-being."

"Didn't know you cared"

Harry turned around and looked at him straight in the eye "Right now, you are my responsibility Rafael. You are one of the first of many who will fight alongside me and I don't doubt that you will one day be a force to be reckoned with, but right now you are a liability, and it is my duty to personally ensure your safety."

"You seem to be sure that you'll be able to protect him Mr. Potter" asked a voice from behind them. Harry and Rafael immediately spun around and came face to face with a seventeen year old prefect. She had jet black eyes and sleek jet black hair with regal looking facial features. She also had a slender figure, flawless alabaster skin and looked like the picture of royalty.

"And you are?" asked Harry and Rafael could sense a cool edge in his voice. The girl simply smiled and then her eyes flashed pink twice and Rafael was surprised to see Harry's posture relax (when did it even tense up?) as he said "I see. Miss Prefect can you please help us with our sleeping arrangements?"

"Of course Mr. Potter follow me" she replied as she walked up the staircase that led to the first year dormitories with Harry and Rafael following her. They soon entered a circular room that had four doors and were surprised to note that Malfoy was the only one with a room to himself, the other two rooms belong to Crabbe &amp; Goyle and Zabini &amp; Nott respectively. The Prefect was standing beside one directly opposite the staircase. Walking forward the two of them entered the room and were pleasantly surprised at what they saw. On either side of the door were two stone walls making a narrow corridor that was about twelve feet long. There was a door on each wall about two feet before the wall ended. One of which lead to a green tiled washroom the other to an empty room, both of which were about twelve feet long and six feet wide. On either side of the end of the corridor was a fully made bed complete with a white pillow and a green comforter. At the foot of the beds were their trunks. On either side of the adjacent wall were a desk and a chair. The middle of the wall was a grand double door that lead out to a balcony that looked over the Black Lake.

"You know you should be happy" said the Prefect as her hair became shot spiky and pink "Only one student gets a room that overlooks the lake."

"Tonks" said Harry with a smile "I never knew that you were a Slytherin."

"Yeah well, say what you will about your family but they are a prejudiced lot against the snakes" she said "It was simply better for me to keep it hidden as long as I could, though I never thought that I could have kept it hidden for so long."

"I agree" Harry replied "Speaking of, didn't you have a party when you became a prefect, how could they have not noticed which house it was for?"

"Yeah, it was the one you didn't show up for. As for how, I have no idea though if I had to guess I would have to say that it was the extreme denseness of your family mixed in with a few notice-me-not charms courtesy of my mother" she said with a smirk before her expression became serious as she said "Harry there are a couple of things you must know. First things first, outside the walls of your or my room I am Miss Black or Prefect Black, nothing else."

"Understood"

"Secondly… I know that you have studied quite a few defensive wards" Tonks said "I would suggest that you put every one you can think of on your door tonight as I have no doubt that you will be attacked tonight."

"I'm guessing you are not referring to the other houses are you" Harry said

"Of course not, this is the house of ambition and cunning _not_ safety. Alliances and protection pacts are made all the time for the sheer reason of survival. Almost every student of this house born to a Slytheirn has had training in their homes for just that purpose, and then they pair up with someone who can cover for their weaknesses. Take Zabini and Nott for example. The latter comes from a family whose main source of income is Wards whereas the former's… families have ensured that he is probably one of the best duelers in at least first two year groups."

"Slytherin's…" Tonks paused as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she continued "rarely have friends because it not unlikely for them to be figuratively stabbed in the back by them… or for someone else to use their friends against them."

Harry and even Rafael could clearly understand her body language and the tone that she had spoken in. It had happened to her, _correction _both things had happened to her and she was trying to warn her younger cousin of that. Warning him so that he would not make the mistakes she did.

"It is an even worse situation for you Harry. Snape's unspoken message was very clear. He is not happy that there is a Potter in Slytherin and he wants the house to show you exactly how welcome you are" said Tonks "And though I thank you for your loyalty to my cousin Mr. Revera, you have just made yourself into the second most-hated first year in our house."

'Ah so that was the reason why she was speaking in front of Rafael instead of speaking to me in private' Harry thought

"I have no doubt that you will be attacked tonight" Tonks said "So my only advice to you is to put up as many wards as you can and get ready to fight..."

Then both her body and her uniform began to change and barely a minute later the Slytherin Quidditch Captain Marcus Flint walked out of their room. Harry turned around and rummaged in his trunk for a moment before he pulled out a glass vial and tossed it to Rafael saying "That's a dreamless sleep portion. Get into your nightwear and drink that and within an hour you'll be asleep, for we will be up early in the morning and I don't want you third from lack of sleep due to the noise I'm about to create."

"Understood"

* * *

Rafael woke up to a loud bang.

Well perhaps woke up was a bit of an understatement. He jumped up and fell off his bed and hit the hard wooden floor. Getting his bearings about him he got up and was slightly shocked at his immediate surroundings. He was currently in a wooden room that had to be at least a hundred and fifty square feet which was decorated in simple but elegant green and white. His bed had been placed between a bookshelf attached to the adjacent wall of which the bottom shelf was filled with all of his first year books, and a wardrobe in which Rafael had no doubt that his clothes were already placed. There was a writing desk on one side of the wall his bed was facing, that was compete with a quill and a bottle of ink, another desk on the other side where his cauldron and his potions kit had been laid out. In between the two desks was a door which he soon walked out of.

He entered into the room where in he had spoken to Harry and Tonks or Prefect Black as he would have to call her through a space where his bed used to be, exactly opposite his door in a space where Harry's bed use to be, was a door that undoubtedly led to Harry's room. On both sides of the door stood a suit of armor and a quick glance on either side revealed that the same was true for his door.

This room, which he would soon begin to call the main room was decorated elegantly in green and silver and had two green couches on either wall, a round table with six chairs around it placed in the center of the room (if you ignore the path to the entrance door). There were also quite a few mirrors on the wall and several statues of animals. Mostly snakes, though Rafael did count a lion and a badger on either side of the balcony doors and two ravens on the walls. In addition there was also a suit of armor on both sides of the entrance door, the washroom door and the door to the empty room… which judging by another bang that just emerge from out of that room, was no longer empty.

He was proven correct when Harry stumbled from the room completely covered in some kind of black glittery powdery substance and almost clumsily ran into the washroom. Rafael, curious to what exactly his friend was doing went and quickly entered the room.

Well truthfully he couldn't make heads or tails of what exactly Harry was doing or what the purpose of this room was. Part of looked like a college's chemistry lab that was made for a single student, with the amount of jars filled with different kinds of liquids or powdery substances, as well as test tubes, test tube holders, beakers, flasks and an honest to good Bunsen Burner. Then there was a desk with dozens of papers and parchments scattered on it, some with weird symbols on it and some with filled with written or printed (depending on whether it was parchment or paper) notes of some kind. Then there was another table that had circles either carved onto it or drawn with chalk, that had various symbols inside the circles. And in addition to all of that, there were also dozens of what appeared to be, melted items.

"Alchemy... Practical application" said a voice and Rafael turned around and saw Harry standing there, looking as impeccable as ever and making Rafael wonder for how long had he been gazing around in wonder "Its not exactly going remotely as well as i hoped but then again i AM dealing with one of the most difficult and elusive wizarding arts."

"I see... Well I have no doubt that you will come to master it with time, but don't we have somewhere to be" asked Rafael as Harry and nodded and said "freshen up and get dressed... After all, its our first day in the snakes pit"

Barely ten minutes later Rafael was ready and was met with his first surprise as he exited the door. For one there was a suit of armor on either side of their door, though this in itself was not surprising… What was surprising was that they looked as someone had wacked them repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Another surprising thing was that while the door itself looked fine, the area around it was badly stinged, as if someone had decided that the walls around it would look better if they were blow-torched. Harry waved his wand and the suits were back to their original pristine states. He waved his wand again but nothing happened. frowning he tried again for a third time with the same result before he put his wadt back inside its holster and said "This is the result of quite a few curses and hexes, many of which are just barely legal, Tonks was right to be afraid. If they plan on using the same kind of spells on the kids inside as they tried to use on the door that no ordinary kid would be able to walk away unscarred… Well mentally at least as I doubt that they would leave anything physically traceable."

"True… But you're not an ordinary kid Harry, you are a war veteran and so I doubt that there is anyone who can match up to you."

"Perhaps, but it's not me I'm worried about."

"… well until I have the skills to look after myself I think I'll stick close to you if you don't mind."

"I don't" he replied "but this means that I will have to start your training much sooner than intended."

"Harry, while I was no where close to being an adult in my own world, I was certainly not a child. Furthermore from what I know about your future, I doubt that I could ever have enough training to survive the horrors that would come to pass." Rafael replied just after he had taken out his wand and cast the _Muffilto _spell around them (really, one of the easiest spells to use, just point your wand upwards and cast). "I do however feel that it would be best that I get all the training I can in as much time as we will get so that we can prevent…"

He trailed off as he noticed two of his female year mates approach them. He noticed Harry mutter a quick _finite incantartem _to eliminate the privacy spell, most likely for his benefit as he had no doubt that the Master of the Deathly Hallows could do that spell both silently and wandlessly.

"The walls have ears girls" he said when they were about to open their mouth "Follow me."

The four of them walked out of the Slytherin Common Room and straight into what seemed to be a deserted dead-end before Harry spoke, or rather hissed. The wall in front of them seemed to disappear, revealing a dark passageway. With a simple wave of his wand the torches inside the passageway were lit and Harry walked forward, Rafael and the two girls not far behind, all three of them noticing that the minute they had entered the passageway the wall solidified behind them, trapping them inside this passageway.

"Well this is creepy" said Rafael as they walked through the cobweb covered Hallway before turning to the two girls and saying "I'm Rafael Revera by the way."

"Daphne Greengrass" said the blonde haired blue eyed part of the duo, just as the black haired blue eyed girl beside her said "Tracey Davis"

"It's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of two girls as lovely as you two" Rafael said with an over flourished bow, "Now how do you know Mr. Tall, Dark and Broody over there."

"I don't brood" Harry said as he stopped walking and turned around to face them. His emotionless tone and deadpan look causing all three of them to smirk. "And as for how I know them…"

"He helped us out when we were attacked" said Tracey

"Attacked?" asked Rafael and Harry almost growled and replied "They were attacked in their room and strung like cattle and left hanging in the middle of the common room in the early hours of the morning. If I hadn't been awake and decided to go for a stroll then they would have likely been left there for hours."

"… Have you remedied the situation?"

"Yes, wards on their door's, not the same as ours but they'll do the job just as well. I also added a space expansion charm and several serpents statue's charmed to attack anyone besides the four of us if given the proper keyword" Harry said "Also I intend to get one of the house elves to change the furniture in their room, to something benefitting two people of their stature."

"Using the room of lost things I presume" Rafael said, noticing the slightly bewildered look on the two girls faces and figuring Harry had not mentioned the last part to the two of them or perhaps the mention of that particular room "Have you spoken to the Prefect?"

"Yes, she will be waiting for us in the kitchens" Harry said before suddenly stopping and hissing something. The wall on the left side of them suddenly seemed to be made of smoke. Harry walked through it with his three companions right behind him. And were surprised to entered what appeared to be massive kitchen, with four long table's quite similar to the house tables, placed in the center of the room. On the table to their left sat a Slytherin Female Prefect with Bubblegum Pink hair, eating a plate of food that had been laid out for her. The four of them soon walked forward and soon enough Tonks (at least that who Rafael assumed it was) said "Well done Harry, I didn't think you could find the kitchens in twelve hours since you've been here, much less use one of our hidden passageways… So, what can I do for you little snakes?"

"Malady, this morning my year mates were attacked in the safety of their own rooms and…"

"Let me guess, dragged to the common room and hand their hands stuck to the ceiling?" she asked "And let me also guess, they were the same two that you had me combine their rooms… Misses Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis if I'm not mistaken?"

"Yes we are" said Daphne "It seems that our own wards weren't sufficient last night and when Mr. Potter rescued us he said that he would ward our room and after seeing the spell damage around his own door without a mark on it we agreed and…"

"What did you offer in return" Tonks asked

"I beg your pardon?"

"Everything in Slytherin revolves around the barter system, basically give or take. Depending on how desperately you want something the steeper the price you're charged for it. Similarly depending on how much your classmates want something from you, the bigger the favors you can request from them in return" Tonks said "Our house has a weird sense of honor, one that is totally fixed on our ranking system and our barter system. Considering the state that he found you in and the fact that he ensured your room's security just after you two had been kidnapped from it, the price must have been very steep… So what was it?"

"Um… nothing…"

"Nothing?"

"Nothing…"

Tonks looked absolutely stunned for a moment before she looked at Harry and said "Huh well that's a new one… Ok big shot, what do you want from them?"

"Their loyalty and friendship as well as their silence for now" said Rafael before Harry could open his mouth to dismiss any payment "As well as their guaranteed silence for what we will do here today."

"And what exactly are we doing here?" asked Tracey. She didn't mind becoming their friends, both of them after all we pretty cool in their own way. And amongst friends loyalty was a given right? Besides as per what she knew about Slytherin deals, their only good for as long as both sides were fulfilled. It would be only too easy to convince Nott to take down the wards in case she and/or Daphne need to put space between the two boys and them.

"Dueling" said Harry "I brought all four of you here today to offer you personal dueling lessons, which you will never get here considering the abysmal DADA standard teachings. And in case you need any assurance of what I am offering then I propose a duel, right here right now between me and our Slytherin Prefect."

"Agreed" said Tonks as she removed her wand, ready to put her younger cousin in place. Regardless of just how much you studied at home or how prodigious your dueling talent was, there was just no way that a first year could defeat a seventh year in open combat.

She had three… duels (though they could hardly be classified as such) with him that just showcased exactly how wide their skill levels were, and unlike what she had assumed she was the one at the bottom of the totem pole.

In their first so called duel, the minute it began her wand shot out of her hand and flew straight at her cousin who caught it with his left hand. She hadn't even seen him draw his wand or mutter a single syllable. Their next duel didn't go much better. She let loose a _stupefy_ and she just had enough time to watch her cousin easily sidestep her attack before she was hoisted up in the air by her ankle, barely a second later she felt an _Expellimarus _blast her back and managed to catch a glimpse of her wand flying towards her cousin. Her third try didn't go much better. She started it off with a standard Duelers Hello (_Stupify, Expellimarus, Stupify Incancartus_). Now traditionally the first spells shot straight at the opponent with the second spell slightly to the right and the third slightly to the left. This would usually prevent your opponent from sidestepping to the left or the right and due to the speed of the stunner they would have no choice but to use a shield-charm, which most often than not was a _Protego._ Now unfortunately that spell did not prevent physical objects from hitting its caster, so the fourth spell, which summoned a bundle of rope would pass right through and wrap around your opponent effectively trapping them.

Now usually any dueler would either use an advance Protego spell, which itself had more disadvantages, or they would hit the deck after casting the shield charm. Tonks was fully ready to capitalize depending on which of those two choices her cousin would choose. Much to her surprise however Harry stepped to the left then right with remarkable speed and grace, sidestepping the first and third spells, his own wand already in motion, and barely a moment after she had cast the incancartus spell, the rope changed into one long heavy snake, which immediately lost momentum and fell to the ground, not to far from her. She barely had time to hear Harry hiss before the snake lunged at her and she had just had enough time to vanish it before she was hit with an _Expellimarus _spell, ending the duel for the third time.

Tonks felt her pride crash around her. She had been soundly defeated by an eleven year old who only has had a wand for a couple of month. SHE, a SLYTHERIN seventh year Prefect and one who had made a name for herself throughout her stay at this institution. Outside the walls of her house, she was the approachable, the kind, the helpful, the _light, _Slytherin. However everyone knew that she was not the person you wanted on your bad side, for if you ever offended her she would make a plan to get back at you, one that would not fail, one that would have you down on your knees begging for forgiveness. Inside Slytherin however She Was Feared. She could easily be anyone, from a small first year girl who would be too cute to attack, to your best friend, someone who you would easily spill your secrets to, not knowing that they were speaking to Tonks rather than their friend. And she had no qualms about using those secrets to destroy you. Not to mention that she could count the amount of students who could beat her in a fair fight (And let's not forget that Slytherin's never fight fair) on one hand. A hand that now included her cousin. Admittedly she hadn't taken the first two fights seriously and she was too stunned by his actions in the third to do properly retaliate, but hey, he HAD defeated her three times in a row.

Though all things considered, despite many bouts of backstabbing and planning and sometimes sheer unpredictably, Slytherins, and probably the rest of the school were perfectly textbook duelers (but that was if they were competent duelers at all considering the utter disaster that was DADA), so even seeing something as simple as Harry sidestepping her spells was utterly surprising and distracting, then again it could also be the fact that what he had done was considered next to impossible to do against that particular combo.

Then you had to consider the way he fought. He had no so much as moved his lips, save to smirk at her and his wand-movements had a crispness and speed that she had only seen in the likes of the DMLE head Amelia Bones, Auror Mad-Eye Moody and the Mauraders themselves.

And Harry only had a few months of wand usage under his belt…

Like any good Slytherin Tonls's mind instantly knew that this was a person she wanted in her corner, for if he was this good now, imagine what he would be when he had finished school. Besides, she always wanted to become an Auror, and her defense was sorely lacking for that particular field. If he could improve her skills in that field then she would be indebted to him, so naturally she accepted his offer.

* * *

"Good morning Ms. Granger"

"Its Hermione, Rafael" the bushy haired eleven year old replied as she looked up from her chair "And I didn't think I would see you in the Library this early in the morning."

"Early?" he asked a sat down on a chair on the other side of the table, placing his first year transfiguration book beside him. "Hermione its nine o'clock in the morning and just half an hour before our classes start, that does not qualify as early."

"Considering that most of my year mates in my house have just started coming down for breakfast it think that it does" she replied cheekily before pointing at his book and saying "So, you excited for the classes?"

"Its magic Hermione" he said "I definitely excited about the prospect of using it. What about you, I mean a few months ago you had no idea that magic was real and now you have come to the most prestigious Magical school of all time."

And so they started discussing their classes and the ones that they were most excited about, and before either of them realized over two dozen minutes passed with them simply chatting (much to Rafael's shock as he thought that Madam Prince would have chased them out by now) and when they did realize the time Rafael offered her his hand and together the walked down to Professor McGonagal's Transfiguration classroom.

* * *

"Your Baronesses, You baronesses" said the Poltergeist as he floated right up to the most feared ghost in Hogwarts, the Ghost of the house of Slytherin, the Bloody Baron

"Peeves" shouted the ghost of Slytherin as he caught sight of the Poltergeist "What have you done now?

"I haven't done anything your Bloodyness, I promise… I need to speak to you though" he said causing the Bloody Baron to frown as the Poltergeist pointed at a wall and said "In there"

The Bloody Baron frowned. There were only a few reasons that Peeves would want to speak to him in private and none of them were good. Regardless he floated through the wall and straight into one of the many giant pipes that ran into the ancient castle.

A second later the Peeves appeared in the pipe and said with uncharacteristic seriousness "I'll cut straight to the chase, I trust you've heard about the unexpected sorting that occurred last night"

"Yes, Harry Potter, the first Potter born in that family to be sorted into Slytherin ever since the family took that name. What about him?"

"I sense the same ancient magic in him that I sensed in you those many many years ago" said the Poltergeist causing the Baron's eyes to widen before he asked "So he's a Master then?"

"It seems so. His wand was definitely the one you used so long ago"

"I see… I'll try to keep an eye on the boy but nothing to overt as I don't want him to become wary of us. Since he's in my house that shouldn't be a problem… hopefully" the Baron replied "I'll also see if I can get the other ghosts to try and socialize with him. If he's anything like I was then he won't be averse to speaking with spirits… I want you to get in touch with the twins, convince them that it would be in their best interest to make friends with the lad… Hopefully that should be enough to give us some idea about what he's like, and depending on the results we will decide on what our next course of action could be."

"Understood" said Peeves in his ordinarily childish voice with a mock salute before he flew straight out of the wall.

* * *

**Well Harry seems to be gaining allies at a remarkable rate and we also see just what goes on inside the pit of snakes. And what on earth is up with the Bloody Baron and the Peeves, you will simply have to stay tuned to find out.**

**And Please, don't forget to Review**

**Rafaelout Out**


	5. Chapter 5

**I have absolutely no claim whatsoever to Harry Potter or any related media and/or merchandise**

**This story was inspired by The Travel Secrets Series by E4mj and I'm Still Here by Kathryn518**

* * *

"Who are you?"

"I'm Harry, Tonks."

"That is not what I mean" she said as she looked him straight in the eye "Your speed is unnatural, your movements are crisp and precise, your accuracy's spot on and you've never waste a move. Your too good to be a person whose been using a wand for less than a year much less a few short months. But at the same time you are Harry and not just someone taking his place… I know you, or at least I thought I did."

Harry's hand became a fist as he looked at his cousin. Tonks was right she knows him and his family too well to be fooled by appearances. To anyone else he was the son and godson of two elite Auror's, his mother was a professional Dueler and his brother was the boy-who-lived. It was only natural that he would be some kind of an elite fighter. But Tonks knew his family too well to think that he had gotten additional training, heck she was practically family herself.

"You want the truth?"

"I do"

"Then I'll need a few answers from you, and a vow."

Tonks paused. She was a Slytherin, she knew exactly what kind of betrayals and backstabbing were possible and even common amongst the members of her house. She also knew that taking a vow, especially the kind that she thought Harry wanted her to take. But then again, Harry was family, not just in blood but in spirit as well. She could trust him, she would trust him, but first…

"What answers do you want?"

"I want to know about our house Tonks, or rather I need to know about our house" Harry said "I've got way too little information to play this game correctly and judging from how I found Daphne and Tracey and the state of the wall's outside my room, I need to know before someone get hurt… badly."

A pause then… "… I can provide you with that, now what about this vow?"

"Since we don't have a bonder I think a blood oath would suffice" said Harry "I thrust you know what that is?"

Tonks nodded and Harry drew a dagger he kept with him at all times and cut the palm of his left hand. Offering it to Tonks she took it and sliced the palm of her right hand before going down on one knee. Harry took her right hand in his left and pressed his wand at their hands and said "Nymphodora Tonks do you swear to never disclose the information I am about to reveal to you in this room, right up until the point of torture?"

Tonks looked up at him, a bit surprised at that last part before she said "I do."

Their hands glowed a deep red color before Harry let go of their hands and Tonks got up of the floor. He took a shot breath and then began to tell his tale in brief.

* * *

Their first day started off quite successfully in Harry's mind. Despite quite a few explosions he had made a good amount of headway in his studies of alchemy, or so he liked to believe. His wards worked perfectly, however in this case meant that no member of the Slytherin Alumni was in the hospital wing or the morgue (and yes, the school actually HAD a morgue). Living through the war gave him a wide array as well as a good understanding of wards, though this was actually the first time he had set any non lethal ones and he was glad to see that they worked successfully.

Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis… Well during the second war with Voldemort, Lord AND Lady Greengrass were looked at as Fudge's replacements, the only question was which of the two Greengrass's would get the title. Considering that Voldermort eliminated the entire family save for Astoria Greengrass who ended up in Malfoy custody (and thereby granting him control over the Greengrass finance), it said a lot about which side they were on. Amelia Bones was the next person to be eliminated and the third and fourth expected replacements were under the Dark Lords thumb. How on earth Rufus Scrimgeour became minister when he wasn't even in the top five most likely successors of Fudge Harry would never know, but in the end he too fell to the Dark Lord's wand.

Tracey Davis, well truth be told he didn't know much about her or her family save that she is a half blood, as well as Daphne's best and oldest friend, not to mention that her first cousin Roger, was Fleur's date to the Yule Ball. But he had no doubt that she would become a valuable asset in the near future.

And speaking of Fleur… As much as he loved the fact that she was in this world alongside him, the fact remained that they would have to have sporadic contact until the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He couldn't exactly constantly use Hedwig to transport them to each other as contrary to what most people thought Phoenix's did have a limit. Their ability to Fire travel was linked directly to the time left until their burning day, transporting someone across nations would cause Hedwig to have a burst into flames just minutes after the jump was complete. And it would take at least a week for the Phoenix to gather enough strength to do that again.

That was actually the reason Fawkes flew him, Ginny, Ron and Lockheart out of the Chamber of Secrets rather than directly flaming them to Dumbledore's office.

The only other way was using the communication mirrors that the Marauders had acquired when they had stumbled across the room of requirement. They had never found the room again, they didn't even know what they had stumbled upon. And Harry also knew that, just like with the Marauders Map, that despite numerous attempts they were unable to recreate the Mirror's.

He simply asked the room about the mirror's and how to replicate them and it provided him with the answers. The problem was again distance. Communications within a close area, lets say throughout Hogwarts, including the grounds, was optimal. Communication between Hogwarts and Diagon Alley was ok, Communication between Scotland and Ireland was spotty at best. As for Britain and France… the less said the better.

His first Transfiguration class was amusing though. Harry knew that Hermione loved felines, something that he had actually told Rafael when they were sitting alone on the train, when he had asked him to tell him about the Golden Trio. Apparently Hermione did have some holes in her knowledge (which in hindsight was to be expected of an eleven year old muggle-born) and apparently Rafael managed to convince Hermione that Professor McGonagal wouldn't mind if she groomed her _cat._ The Master of Death could barely restrain himself from laughing as Hermione took the Professor in her Animagus form, to her desk (which was incidentally on the first bench of the middle row of the classroom) and started brushing her, grooming her and so on. It was only when his brother and Ron came running into class, thanking Merlin that the Professor hadn't arrived that the cat jumped from Hermione's embrace and ran through the side door. A minute later a blushing Professor McGonagal (something that Harry didn't think was possible) emerged and began the first transfiguration class of the year without so much as a quiver in her voice (something that impressed him a great deal).

"Transfiguration is some of the most difficult and complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts, and it is for that reason that if I find anyone fooling around in this class will leave and not come back. You have been warned" she said in a strict tone before she took out her wand and with a wave changed her desk into a pig and then back to a desk again, impressing everyone in the class.

Then she started to lecture and give notes to her class, attempting her level best to ignore Hermione's desk as much as possible, an attempt that was failing miserably considering Hermione's tendency to ask and answer any and every question. When there were about fifteen minutes to go all the students were given a match which they attempted to try to turn into a needle, (save for Harry). Hermione was the first to succeed netting five points for Gryffindor with Harry being the second (He didn't want to take Hermione's well earned points, but he did want to give the impression that he was studious and competent with magic) and surprisingly Rafael was third and last one to turn his match into a needle.

Of course on the way out of the class itself, he did make sure to get his fellow dimension traveler to promise to apologies to Hermione, but that was beside the point. As Harry had been thinking about his own classes during Transfiguration and what he would teach them when he came to a startling realization.

There really was no duck, roll and retaliate impulse in most Hogwarts graduate, Death Eaters and Auror's included. Nor did they border to use Apparation during combat, or even move from their positions when faced with spells they can shield against, save for maybe once or twice. Something that he would have to change since the only exception here was Voldemort during the first war.

Whenever he entered combat the first thing he did was put up personalized apparation wards, after getting rid of any pre existing ones of course. Then it was CRACK, Killing Curse CRACK decapitation curse CRACK Crucio CRACK Blood Boiling curse, CRACK Killing Curse again, you get the picture. He was like a demon during the first war, taking down dozens wherever he appeared. And let's not forget the Trace on his chosen name that was active even back then. If anyone said it in an instantly accessible location, whether it was by apparition or Portkey, (which existed for nearly every non-extremely secured location) a second later the Dark Lord would show up, kill the fool who had uttered his name as well as half a dozen others before getting out of there. It was the REAL reason that people refused to say his name, out of fear that he'd suddenly appear and kill them and anyone in the nearby vicinity.

The reason Dumbledore had gotten away for saying his name so carelessly and continuously was not just the fear that Tom Riddle had for the old man, but also the fact that said man virtually lived inside the most secure location in the world.

And speaking of the wards, Hogwarts was an absolute fortress that had (In Harry's Original Life) even survived, not just one but several Atomic Bombs undamaged. Its wards were undoubtedly a work of art and any warder worth his title would literally give anything for a chance to study them. Unfortunately the only people who had access were the school headmasters so very few ever got the chance.

When he had learnt this he questioned how on earth did the school fall apart during Voldemort's attack and then found out that Snape, true to his role as a spy had deactivated every single ward in the school. As he deputy's had been taken out (not that it would have made a difference considering that they were the Carrows) there was no one with the authority to activate the wards as unfortunately the wards could only be transferred to another on the dawn of the first day of a new week with the approval of a majority of the previous headmasters successors.

He truly hated the efficiency that Snape put into his role as the man had literally no chance to show his true colors and prepare a the castle for a siege as the wards could only be activated from INSIDE and Voldemort would not let his servant out of his sight.

* * *

"Put that on, quickly" he said to the two girls as he tossed them his invisibility cloak. He had already checked using several spells and there was no student, teacher, house-elf or about any other living creature in the library at that moment save for Madam Prince who was at the front to the corridor.

And that brought Harry to a halt, Madam Prince, Madam PRINCE! Snape was the Half Blood Prince. Did they have some kind of relation, if so how close? Was she in the service to Voldemort, placed to keep an eye on her family member or did she have nothing to do with the dark lord. Questions and scenario's ran rampart throughout his mind, moves and counter-moves were thought of and discarded for each scenario.

That continued for a moment before his mind remembered one detail he had seen this morning but did not exist last night, Malfoy had a bunkmate named Peter Prince. Just who was this unknown Prince and what relation did he have with the other two? In fact what relation did all three have with each other?

He was finally brought back to reality when he was elbowed by Rafael in the gut, rather hard. He looked at his roommate and instantly remembered what they were suppose to be doing, berating himself for getting distracted he put his thoughts about the Prince's aside and walked up to an old bookshelf next to on of the stone walls, tapped it with his wand and said 'Chosen One'

Harry smirked at the irony of that password and the title that he was once hailed by, as the bookshelf swung back and stepped side beaconing for his companions to go on they did so and Harry showed them how to close it, as well as get it to open again. After that they continued up the passageway till it opened up on the fourth floor, which was thankfully empty save for one person, Nymphodora Tonks, who was leaning against wall beside a mirror that went from floor to ceiling and was twice as wide.

This was one of the seven passageways listed on the Maunders map, and while the tunnel that led to the outside had indeed caved in, it did not change the fact that there was a well lit cavern that was as big as a basketball court inside this passageway and before the cave in.

"Mizzimist" said Harry as he tapped the mirror. Nothing seemed to physically change, however when Harry literally stepped into the mirror they all figured it was similar to the entrance to the platform nine and three quarters, and they all soon followed him through. All five of them walked down the torch lit corridor until the passageway opened up and instead of a dark and damp torch lit cavern that they were expecting they instead got the huge open space that literally seemed to be filled with sunlight.

"The ceiling is charmed the same way the one in the great hall is" Harry said loudly as he walked to the center of the cavern "Now gather around and let us start the first thing meeting of… what should we call this?"

"The… Silver Hand?" said Tracey hesitantly "… I mean we are Slytherins and there are five of us…"

"For now" said Rafael "I mean sure Tracey's right, there are just five of us, but we can always recruit others. I am sure quite a few people will be interested in joining, and not just from Slytherin. But why stop there? Let us not keep this as a club where were learn to defend ourselves, buts as the start of something greater than all of us can currently comprehend. Let this be the start of an organization were we help one another, were we lookout for each other. Let this be the start of something that change our world forever! Let us be the first five heads of a single body, let us be… Hydra."

"I agree with Rafael" said Tonks "In a slightly less ambitious way, after all there is a saying as old as our kind, United we stand, Divided we fall. I agree with the name Hydra."

Daphne gave Tracey a slightly apologetic look as she said "Indeed, it is a good idea for our group to keep growing, so long as we all stick together, and it would be foolish to exclude three fourths of our fellow students simply because they are not Slytherin. I cast my vote with Hydra."

"Then I think most of us are agreed. From this day forth let us be known as Hydra" said Harry as the others nodded in agreement.

"Well now that we've got that out of the way!" Harry said in a sweet voice that sent shivers down their backs as he waved his wand and a huge obstacle course appeared "Let us begin with your training!"

Of all of them only Rafael knew exactly how exhausting and painful this thing would be and he couldn't help but groan. Maybe choosing to be reborn in this world wasn't such a good idea after all.

* * *

The month passed quickly and Harry would say that he was board. Oh, don't get him wrong, Harry would certainly admit that there were a few amusing changes this time around like during his first transfiguration class where Hermione affectionately tended to Professor McGonagal in her Animagus form.

It was also amusing to be on the other side of the chopping board during Potions class. Though with all his advance knowledge and experience he could finally see why Slytherin's Alumni, and most potioneers in general seemed so ahead in this class. It had nothing to do with any sort of show of favoritism on Snapes part (though he would be the first to admit that his Head of House tended to favor his housemates a lot) or the fact that the pit of snakes had an actual potions lab in their house with a remarkably wide and good selection of ingredients to boot). It really had more to do with how the were raised.

Every single student received the exact same instructions, but it was only the Purebloods who whipped their chopping boards before and after they used it to cut ingredients and wiped their knives, both before and after they used them. The reason for this is that most Slytherins, unlike many members of the school in general knew about the House-Elves of Hogwarts and summoned them to clean their cauldrons the day before they had a class, and after they had a class. This was not so much advance instruction as it was behavior conditioned into them after years of doing the same at home. After all every single Pureblood wiped their knives before or after using them, called their personal elves after they had finished using their stuff and wanted it clean. Their cleanliness was such an ingrained habit that they applied it to Potions without even thinking about it.

As for the meetings though. He was convinced that either Daphne or Tracey would complain. Whether they would stay of leave after he refused to do anything about said complain was uncertain, but he was sure that they would complain. But they didn't.

He wondered if he'd misjudged those pureblood girls and they were tougher than they appeared, or perhaps they knew just how difficult it was to get good defense instruction in Great Britain or perhaps they were just that desperate after their first night. When he suggested this train of thought to Rafael (after his friend had figuratively finished cursing his name for the hell he had just been put through) his partner said that it was most likely a combination of the three and Harry was inclined to believe him.

As for including befriending other houses, well that was going well… They had seven subjects… two with each house as Astronomy was held individually for each house. During one of the periods with the Ravenclaws Harry and Rafael sat with one of the Patil twins (after asking if they wouldn't mind) and during the other period they switched places. Tracey sat with Terry Booth during one of those periods and with a Ravenclaw girl whose name escaped both Harry's and Rafael's mind and for her part Daphne sat with both Antony Goldstein and Antony George. During their periods with the Hufflepuff's Harry sat with either Justin Finch-Fletchley or Hannah Abbot and Rafael sat with Susan Bones (who Tracey, Daphne and Harry were already quite familiar with thanks to their familial background) and with Ernie McMillan. While Daphne and Tracey seemed to sit with a pair of blonde and brunette girls respectively. During their periods with the Gryffindor's Tracey and Daphne sat together and while Harry either sat with Neville and Rafael sat with Hermione.

It was actually interesting to note that when Rafael mentioned that there were a lot more students than he remembered reading about Harry had to point out that there had to be inconsistencies. On an average each house hosted twenty to forty students, this years Gryffindor batch being the shortest with just ten students. And Hogwarts itself had anywhere from seven hundred students to a thousand students… Just a point to note.

If Harry had a full uninterrupted year to train them then he would say that progress was going well and that they would be able to adequately defend themselves. Unfortunately he didn't have a full year with all the holidays and feasts and regular classes and what not. In fact he knew from the moment he and Rafael had started Hydra that he had less than a month before the first great threat, the Mountain Troll. With all his years of experience he knew EXACTLY how great a threat a Mountain Troll was. Oh, don't get him wrong Giants were much more deathly, goblins were more deathly than Giants and Wand Wielders, or rather _competent _Wand Wielders were more deathly than goblins (notice how he didn't use the word Witch or Wizard, and it was that very reason, along with a bit of explaining behind his reasoning that he wasn't an enemy with the goblins during his original lives).

Never the less a fully grown Mountain Troll was a dangerous adversary, and a potentially deathly one to students. Rafael had said that they would have to deal with the Troll before it could become a problem and that was something that he agreed with whole heartedly but the question remained how?

The map wouldn't work this time, it could only sense those that were human, half human, once humans (Werewolves, Vampires, Voldemort etc), creatures morphologically similar to humans (Veelas, born Vampires) animagus's and so on. A Troll which had absolutely no remote relation to a human would not show up on the finest creation of the Marauders.

Which meant he would need eyes in the castle… but the question was again how? The portraits were all charmed to be loyal to the Headmaster, The house elves wouldn't betray their master and he didn't have enough students loyal to him to for a proper network, not to mention that relying on the general student population would be a measure he would be reluctant to use even during the worst of the worst case scenario's. Which left only one option… Ghosts.

Even as a first year during his original life he recognized that there was one ghost here that all the other spirits look to for guidance and judgment, he was their chief so to speak. Not to mention that He, along with Helena Ravenclaw were amongst the oldest Ghosts in the castle. Harry knew that he would have to make a deal, but the question here was, what would a ghost want?

* * *

"Slytherin" said a very angry voice, with a mixture of the greatest confusion and the deepest loathing the man could feel "My youngest son is a Slytherin!"

"James calm down" the Head of the Black family, Sirius Black pleaded

"How can I" he shouted "How can I calm down when my son is a member of one of those…"

"Enough James" said his long time friend and owner of Zonko's Joke Shops, Remus Black said in sharp voice "Enough…"

"My Family is literally the darkest family in existence, and has been since the burning of Joan of Arc, most of its closest current familial members are either insane, corrupt, in Azkaban or a combination of the three, present company excluded of course" Sirius replied "And yet look at me, I may be a bit insane but I'd say that I've turned out alright haven't I? And for that matter look at Remus, he is a wearwolf who should be much darker than any of the current Slytherin Alumni, but look at us, we are thriving members of society, dedicated to helping others, and more importantly your friends James, your friends!"

"But you're Gryffindors!"

"AND MY STEP-DAUGHTER IS A SLYTHERIN" Remus yelled "My little Nymph is a Slytherin James. You've been around her your whole life, are you going to tell me that she is a servant of Evil. And for that Harry is the son that has been with your family since he was born. Are you really telling me that Lily and YOU have been raising a dark wizard? Think a little James, Think!"

"He is your SON" added Sirius harshly "He deserves your care till he is an adult in the eyes of our Law, but more importantly he deserves a chance. He is your Son James, your Blood. You cannot deny him a chance to prove that he is not what you are making him out to be."

"Your right" said James slowly "He is my son, and it is for that reason, and that reason alone that I will give him the benefit of the doubt. But should he prove unworthy, he will get no second chances from either me or my family."

And with that the current High Auror James Potter, second in command to the Head Auror Scrimature, apparated out of Hogshead and leaving both his drinking companions staring at the place at which their brother in all but blood sat mere moments ago, in sheer utter disbelief

"Sirius?"

"He's just tired Remus, it been a long long day, after a very tiring operation. And then he finds out about this" Sirius replied "I am sure that once he calms, down he will realize the folly of what he said, I am sure of it."

"And If he doesn't?" asked the werewolf "I mean he's changing Sirius, some would say that he has certainly changed form the man that we graduated with, and I'm inclined to believe them. And not all changes are good Sirius, you of all people should know that."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it my friend" Sirius replied "Which is hopefully never."

* * *

"Lord Baron" said a voice a voice causing the Ghost of Slytherin to turn around and look at the one who had addressed him, "I seek an audience with you"

"And prey tell me, what do you seek to gain from it" replied the clear baritone that was the Bloody Baron's voice. The ghost wasn't surprised that this student wished to speak to him, it would happen sooner or later. No the question was why?

"Your aid, and the aid of the ghosts of Hogwarts, well those that are willing at the very least" Harry replied. The Baron's lips nearly curled into a smile at that point but he was quick to regain his stoic mask. Usually there were a lot more pleasantries and good amount of buttering up that took place before one got to the point of the matter, something that got quite old quite fast… and he was over nine hundred years old at that point. To see the reason out in the open so soon was refreshing to say the least, it was also worrying. In his experience, and he had a lot of it. You don't really start a negotiation at the crux of the matter unless it had to be dealt with urgently. While it was quite possible and quite probable that this had changed over time, something told him (he really couldn't figure out what), that this was a situation that required urgency.

"Strange things are about to start happening here at Hogwarts" Harry said "And they will steadily grow more and more dangerous. The winds of change are blowing Lord Baron and I need your help to keep innocent bystanders out of harms way."

"I'm sure that Dumbledore will be more than capable of looking out for the students entrusted to his care"

"Dumbledore…" said Harry with a touch of amusement before his voice became serious "No, either that man will be the cause of the incidents and be blind towards them until the very end of the year… or he won't be able to do anything about them at all."

"And you can?" asked the Baron with a sneer.

"Perhaps, perhaps not, but I can help prevent collateral damage Lord Baron, something that are esteemed Headmaster doesn't seem to care about" Harry replied "You do know what is hidden in the third floor in this very castle do you not?"

"I do… But will you provide the students protection, regardless of their house, blood status or families?"

"If their families endanger this school and they know about it, or they are responsible for any threats towards my fellow students then they will receive no quarter from me Lord Baron" Harry replied coldly "Otherwise I swear to protect all the students I can to the best of my abilities."

"Then I can think we can come to some agreement Mr. Potter, follow me" said the ghost before he started to float away, with the real Boy-Who-Lived walking right beside him, both of them negotiating with each other.

Harry walked away from the negotiation smiling, he did have to make a few concessions (which was practically a given). Things like having to spend a night amongst the ghost of the castle he could understand. He had negotiated that part so that he would spend the Halloween at Nick's Death Day Party (but only if he received an invite as it would be rude to go for a party uninvited). That was something that the Bloody Baron was pleased with as to him it seemed that Harry was giving up a feast to spend time with the dead in accordance with the traditions of All Hallows Eve.

He could also understand the request to score high in History and to encourage others to pay attention to it. Professor Binns was a ghost and scoring well in his class would only reflect well on the spirit. Also, it was important to pay attention to the mistakes of the past and learn from them, else they would be doomed to repeat them over and over again.

What he didn't understand was why the Bloody Baron wanted him to be a part of the Quidditch team, but then probably figured that the Baron had see him flying when he snuck out sometimes in the dead of night (hey, he needed to keep his skills sharp, and his talent with a broom had come in handy dozens of times) and that he wanted to see his house retain the Quidditch cup for one more year in a row.

Rafael's response to that request (when he told him about it) was that everyone gets board and that quidditch must be something that the Ghosts of Hogwarts used to help pass the time. That actually made sense when he went to think about it.

In exchange he got the Baron and all the ghosts that said spirit could gather, to keep an eye on the castle and help him when the time was right. He would also be allowed to ask the ghosts about magic that had been forgotten as the years have gone past…

Hopefully this would be beneficial in his extracurricular activities (that had to be at least ONE alchemist amongst the Hogwarts ghosts right?) and allow him to dive into the deeper parts of the Arcane. But that was not an immediate concern, rather a passive goal. If memories served than everyone save Hermione would be at the Haloween feast, something that was good, while this was an entirely new world he really couldn't picture anyone missing a feast unless the had a prior arrangement (for example Nick's Deathday Party) or they were emotionally compromised (like the Hermione from his original world was on that night, thanks to Ron).

Rafael would keep an eye on Hermione, they already had an established rapport, something that he would have to establish himself (hey, so he missed his oldest and closest friend, sue him). If anything happened he trusted his fellow dimension traveler to keep Hermione safe, Rafael had proven to be one of his best students in Hydra and he knew from personal experience that his friend's ability with hand to hand combat was greater than his own. And the Baron's Ghosts should alert him if there was anyone in danger, still if he wanted them to keep up their end of the bargain then he needed to keep up his.

Their first Quidditch lesson seemed to be déjà vu, with his brother taking his place for the drama. Neville falling off, Hooch taking him to the hospital wing, Malfoy taking his Remembrall before flying into the sky, his brother taking off after him, his brother catching the remembrall and Professor McGonagal coming to escort him away and dismiss the rest of the class.

Harry had wondered why Madam Hooch hadn't taking the class on the quidditch pitch, though now he knew that it was because his house had already claimed it for trials well before their first quidditch class was announced.

"Potter, you do realize that first years are not allowed on their house teams correct." Said the Captain of Slytherin's Quidditch Team Marcus Flint, as he walked over from where he and the rest of his team had been talking.

"No, the rules specifically state that first years are not allowed to bring their own brooms, there are no rules barring a first year from being on the team, I checked."

"And how exactly do you plan on playing without your own broom, our school brooms are in terrible condition and are not even fit to be used by the referee, forget the seeker."

"Let's do the trials first Flint, then we'll speak about how I plan on overcoming that little obstacle." Harry replied as he gazed at his competition, Higgs (who he knew would be playing as Slytherin's seeker if he didn't participate) and two other second years. He greatly outclassed Higgs when he was a first year, so he had this in the bag. Approximately thirty-seven minutes later after he had caught the snitch seven times out of seven, (leaving his competition with a grand total of ZERO catches) and gone through a number of drills Flint had come to the conclusion that Harry knew from the get go, that he was easily the best seeker on this field.

"Alright Potter you're in!" he said "Now tell me, how do you plan on getting around that little limitation of no brooms."

"Well, the school rules specifically state that a first year can't have his own broom" said Harry with a grin "they never said anything about not playing on someone else's broom."

Moment later his grin was matched by six nearly identical ones, courtesy of his teammates. Slytherin was winning the Quidditch cup, there was absolutely no question about it.

* * *

**Author Notes (1)**

**I am so SO sorry for the delay in this chapter... truth be told I had this part written out since the start of may but I wanted to add the Troll sequence to it, something that I kept on editing and revising and editing and revising and it was getting me no where...**

**Anyway as I am sure you guys must have already figured out this chapter is mostly just filter... **

**In the next chapter I plan to continue with the storyline and hopefully get the first year finished in the next two to three chapters...**

**On a side note, my exams are drawing ever so close so don't expect any updates until the end of July at the very least ! ! !**

* * *

**Author Notes (2)**

**In my opinion SI stories usually end up with said character having a grand plan that simply takes care of everything, has all the answers and is many a times ridiculously overpowered (which is a natural tendency when you start to write about one's self)... I wanted to take the concept of a self insert and change it from a character that usually ends up as a reminiscent of a Gary Stu or Mary Sue and change it into a character who has to face his own trials and tribulations alongside the ****protagonists of the story. I wanted to create a character who, despite his knowledge is just as much of a stranger to the world of magic as most muggleborns are... Maybe it will work or maybe I'll fall in line with with my predecessors and create a Gary Stu, but in the end at the very least I can say is that I tried...  
**

**It's actually on a similar note that I added the Pendragon line... Lines of the Founders and Merlin and Auther etc are often a one way access to mountains of gold, magic artifacts, and much much more... I will admit that at the beginning I fell in line with that cliche and decided to give him all the resources he would ever need... But where would be the fun in that... Sure I have included artifacts that will undoubtedly give him a major power boost but Harry will have to work for them, figure out how to acquire the swords without loosing his life in the process... I want to take the usual cliche that is the Pendragon line and transform it into something new and exciting while keeping in mind the general limitations that I have to have while writing it (and not end up creating something entirely new in the process)...**

**I admit that both goals seem exceedingly ambitious but I hope to do them justice...**

* * *

**Author Note (3)**

**I would like to thank all those of you who have left positive comments about my fic and I hope that this story continues delight each and every single one of you...**

** And I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter of HP: Reloaded.**

**And Please, don't forget to Review**

**Rafaelout Out**


	6. Chapter 6

**I Certainly do not own Harry Potter and/or anything remotely related (save for the set of seven books displayed proudly on my shelf… Those are mine, MINE!)**

**This Story was inspired by 'Travel Secrets' by E4mj and 'I'm still here' by Kathryn518**

**Oh…  
warning in advance, this chapter is mostly filter and dialogue and I'm pretty sure that some of it, well actually a good part of is is going to seem idealistic, so I apologize in advance.**

* * *

"Stupefy, Levicorpus, Stupefy, Expelliarmus"

"Again!"

"Stupefy, Levicorpus, Stupefy, Expelliarmus"

"Again"

"Stupefy, Levicorpus, Stupefy, Expelliarmus"

"Impressive" said a voice causing Harry Potter to turn around to see the Bloody Baron and Nearly-Headless Nick floating a bit behind him. "You're training them well."

"Yes well I promised I'd give them a good grounding in defense before the year is done" Harry replied while simultaneously firing a stinging jinx at Tracey Davis as punishment for firing a stunning spell without his go ahead "But I doubt the reason you're here is to watch me train them."

"Indeed not, while I have no doubt that I may be able to offer them some valuable advice when they have sufficiently advanced, it would be better for them to learn the basics first, something that you are doing a marvelous job teaching them from what I can see" the ghost replied "No, the reason I'm here is that just fifteen minutes ago a Gryffindor by the name of Ronald Weasley spoke some very disparaging and rude comments about your friend Hermione Granger which she heard and she has currently locked herself in the girls washroom to try and console herself… I just thought that you'd like to know…"

"I would, thank you" Harry said before yelling "Rafael, Tonks, get over here, the rest of you take five rounds and then you're dismissed."

Said Slytherins quickly jogged over to them while Tracey and Daphne threw them envious looks as they started running around the cavern. A quick explanation later Rafael rushed out of their meeting hall with Nick who would lead him towards Hermione, with Tonks trying to keep up with them. Harry trusted that they would be able to get her to safety, and preferably convince her to accompany him to the Deathday Party if she didn't want to go for the feast. And if they ran into trouble that he couldn't deal with (i.e the Troll) well…

Harry's hand instinctively went into his pocket and felt the single golden galleon, or rather fake galleon that was there. For some reason it felt fitting that it was Hermione's own creation that would help ensure her safety… Harry looked the Bloody Baron in the eye and said "I'm pretty sure that my friends will be able to take care of Hermione, as she does know him better than she does me… for now anyway… Shall we make our way down to the party Lord Baron?"

"Of course Master Potter" he replied.

And the two of them walked (well one walked, the other floated) away, leaving two sweat drenched Slytherin girls lying exhausted on the ground.

* * *

"Hello there Hermione" said a voice causing the crying girl to turn around and see a beautiful (for there truly was no other way to describe it) eleven year old girl with perfect alabaster skin long flowing raven black hair and sparkling blue eyes" Your friends are worried about you?"

"Friends?" she asked coarsely"... what friends?"

"Rafael and Harry" she replied "the former is waiting outside, worried about you. My cousin would be here too if he...well let's just say that Ron is going to run into a lot of bad luck in the coming week, which hopefully should teach him a lesson..."

"B-but why?"Hermione asked with a quiver in her voice "I mean he is right..."

"Don't you dare say that Hermione" shouted a voice from outside the washroom "You are not insufferable, you're smart! And that is a great thing. And as for friends Hermione, you have friends, you have us!"

"You heard the guy Hermione" the girl said as she held out her hand "So forget about that idiot Ronald Weasley and come join us for a while."

"Wh-Who are you?"

"A friend, if you'll allow me to be." she replied as she shook her hand once, and Hermione took it and went with her new friends, safe in the knowledge that she was truly not alone in this strange new world.

* * *

And so no one was in any danger. Hermione, Tonks and Rafael were all in the Great Hall during Halloween and the moment Quirrel entered Rafael took out a slightly more advance version of the fake Galleon, which was basically a back notepad with the protein charm attached to it, which had five copies. Any time someone wrote on his/her pad, it would reappear on the other pads, save in a different predetermined color (each pad had a separate color) than the regular blue ink used (in order to determine who was sending the message).

A quick message telling his teacher that Quirrel had entered the hall, yelling about a troll in the dungeons, which was almost immediately seen by Harry, who instantly knew that it was time to act.

In less than two minutes Harry silenced the majority of the ghosts (silencing charms work, but only for a minute at best) as he explained the situation and sent the ghosts to watch the corridors (dungeons, basements, ground floor, first floor second floor and third floor). He didn't have time to assign specific doors rather just send groups with a predetermined leader; the Bloody Baron, the Fat Friar, the Grey Lady, Nearly-Headless Nick, and a Wizarding tactician named Montague Knightley respectively.

Fortunately the Four House Ghosts were quick to add their support to the plan, and with the senior most and most respected ghosts support the others didn't bother to object, which was really good as in a situation like this every second counted and in exactly three minutes after Quirrel's dramatic entrance the Ghosts were in place in each corridor, including the forbidden corridor, thereby preventing that man from trying to make an attempt on the stone.

In a grand total of seven minutes since Quirrel had entered the hall the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had reached their houses (thanks to some very nifty shortcuts as revealed by the ghosts), the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were out of danger, having all passed the third floor and the Troll had been subdued by the staff.

All in all a very good ending to what could have been a disaster for the students and the school as a whole.

* * *

Thanks to some good improvisations on his part and the foresight of future knowledge last night couldn't have gone better. The Students had quickly made it back to their dormitories and the staff had quickly dispatched the Troll. Despite all that Harry still felt that last night was to dangerous for comfort, this was a school after all not a fortress (and wasn't that ironic considering that Hogwarts WAS in fact, a fortress). And if his foreknowledge remained true then things would only get more dangerous from this point on.

And so he called Hydra for a meting on the very next day in his own room. Well he called them for a meeting at noon (as the first of November was a Friday which meant that they had Potions for the full morning) in order to use this situation for mass recruitment into Hydra, which he planned to do after noon on that same day. The afternoon was basically free for them as they had Hogwart's version of magical theory in the afternoon which was only necessary for those who came from the muggle world, which was no one in Slytherin (well except for Rafael but neither he nor Harry were going to let ANYONE know about that little detail as the fallout would certainly be disastrous for them at this point of time). And in the evening they had History of Magic.

So Harry and found himself dueling lightly with Rafael, as per his the Slytherin's own request, as the first rays of sunlight of the new day hit the walls of Hogwarts. It was a beautiful sight to behold that was for sure, and they paused in their duel (or to be more accurate Harry hit his friend with the Disarming spell and catching the wand as it came flying towards him, before tossing it back to his friend) and drank in the sight of the first dawn of November in 1991.

What neither of them expected to see was the accompanying sight of a beautiful phoenix soaring towards them, and both of them would agree that the sight of a phoenix flying in the first rays of the rising sun was a beautiful sight indeed. As the phoenix got closer Harry recognized it as the reincarnation of his first true friend and his familiar Hedwig, and as it got even closer they both saw that it had a dove clutched in its talons.

As Hedwig landed in front of them, she gently placed the dove on the stone railing (which was big enough that a person could lie down and rest on it, provided that they don't roll over of course). Harry raised his wand and cast a detection spell which showed that the dove was a transfigured witch. With a flick of his wand he undid the transformation and watched as the dove slowly elongated in a beautiful girl with silvery blonde hair, who was wearing a long silver dress.

As she slowly stirred and got up Rafael got his first look at his best friend's girlfriend. Beautiful, Gorgeous, Bombshell and about a dozen similar words couldn't even begin to describe the girl before him.

From her gorgeous sapphire blue eyes to her perfect facial features to her beautiful silvery blonde hair that cascaded down to her shoulders, to her perfect hourglass figure that was perfectly complemented by her formfitting silver dress, and though a small part of his mind couldn't help but wonder at the, well _strangeness_, of her arrival, a much larger part of his mind…

Rafael shook his head vigorously. She was probably the most dangerous woman on the planet and was dating the man who was undoubtedly the most dangerous person on this planet. Not to mention that said person was his best friend and, well… his idol in this world.

Rafael looked up to see both Harry and Fleur smirking knowingly at him. _'Those…'_

"I wasn't expecting to see you for some time my love" Harry said "And how exactly did you get here?"

"Self transfiguration, a delayed hibernation charm and I simply let Hedwig carry me the rest of ze way." She replied "In addition to zeir immortality and ability to travel from one place to another visa-vi fire, zey are also amongst ze strongest and fastest magical creatures on ze planet.

"How long did to take you to get here?" asked Rafael curiously.

"Tempus" was her reply as the time spell showed her the time (obviously) "About two hours, giv or take"

"Interesting" Rafael said. He knew that there were technology that could get here faster, but then again there was also magic that could accomplish the same. Floo, Aparation, Portkeys. But it could be traced. And at this point Hydra was still in its infancy, they did not need any link with Fleur Delacour… Well none that could be traced anyway.

"How are things on your side Harry?" she asked, as she conjured chairs for all three of them to sit down on and a small round table in between them.

"Well enough for the time being" he replied as he took out a wand and waved it. Six images that seemed to be made of visible vapors appeared. They were images of the current members of Hydra, and Hermione. "These are the current members of my little club, and all of them can be great assets for us in the future."

He waved his free hand over the images, disrupting them and with another wave of his wand he created several more images, dozens of images. Some of them people that Rafael personally new, others whom he had heard off just in the passing. Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottem, Susan Bones, Hannah, Abbott, Padma and Parvati Patil Terry Booth, two Ravenclaw girls whose name escaped Rafael's mind, Antony Goldstein and Antony George, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Earnie McMillan, Cedric Diggory, Astoria Greengrass, the Lily Moon and Sui Li.

"These are potential recruits who I intend to recruit in the next two years" Harry said "after which I will be training all of them for the next four years and I estimate they will be ready enough by the time of the second task of the Tri-Wizard tournament. I intend to divide and train them all into cells of seven so that they can act in tandem with each other and the current members of my little club will act as my commanding officers. With you and me included Fleur that will make seven commanders."

Harry undid the illusion of the people on the table before continuing. "Of course I may not always be successful in recruiting others. The final roster may be much different than what I've just shown you. Hydra is in its infancy after all, once it's stable we will have a better idea of how things will go… So, tell me my love, how are things on your end."

"Good, I myself have found six friends who will follow me to the end." she replied as she waved her wand and generated images for them to see "

"Anne de Chantraine" An image of a silvery-blonde haired red-eyed girl who seemed to have an almost inhuman quality to the beauty that the smoky image was showing them. There was no doubt in either Harry or Rafael's mind that this girl was a Veela. "A Veela who has connections to the… well, what will soon be the next ruling body of the vela community for the next seven years. She also has a lot of potential in the magical arts and with the proper assistance… my assistance, she will become a truly powerful witch."

"Gilles Garnier, a wearwolf studying in our school" An image of a broad shouldered muscular man with blue eyes and blonde hair that was cut in a military regulation style "He will become important to the werewolf community in France in the near future."

"Adrienne d'Heur" An image of a regally dressed sixteen year old girl with raven back hair and eyes who Harry instantly recognized. That was the third in line to inherit the throne of the magical kingdom of France, for unlike Britain that was governed by a magical government that was suppose to be under the authority of the Queen, magical France was ruled by a monarchy. "I trust she needs no introduction"

"Valeera Sanguinar, heir to the strongest vampire coven in France" The image of a seemingly timeless girl with unnaturally pale skin, black hair, red eye and blood red lips (that could have been made with either blood or lipstick, though Rafael sincerely hoped it was the latter) with just a hint of her fangs visible. She was dressed in regal robes of black and red and Harry counted no less than four hidden daggers on her person. "A girl who specializes in close combat, throwing knives and modern weapons, and who has been a close friend of mine for seven years in this world, and up until she died in our own my love…"

"Alleria Blaumeux" A Veela similar to Fleur and 'Anne de Chantraine' dressed in Beaubatons school robes "A good girl, a good person… I guess she you could call her a jack of all trades, with a slight talent in healing… but above all a good friend." Rafael smiled at this… He didn't want Hydra to become a militant organization, oh sure its members would become powerful in their chosen magical fields as Harry and Fleur would see to that, but he wanted them, to be a group of close friends who would stick with one another till the end.

The last image was a person who looked exactly like the with infront of them, dressed in the blue beaubatons uniform and looking a little out of place. Rafael wondered who this was as he was pretty sure that Fleur didn't have a twin. He was even further confused when the Veela said "And last but not the least Fleur Delacour."

Rafael was surprised at the name, there was no other way to put it. But his mentor however looked stone cold as he barked out a single word which had an edge of steel to it "Explain!"

"My love unlike you Rafael and I have no backstory, background or anything else… unlike you who replaced his dead counterpart, we were simply dropped into this world." She said "That is why I didn't try to find you, I was too busy establishing an identity for myself."

"And who are you officially?" He asked

"Fleur Rivera. One of two children of a now deceased muggle and a Veela Bounty Hunter." she said before turning to Rafael and tossing him a bag "The other child, and my younger brother is you… Inside that bag you will find basic background information, a muggle passport, a Gringotts key and the location and the keys to two safe houses. One in Hogsmeade, the other in France at the entrance to the Allée des Ombres."

"Alley of Shadows?" Rafael asked confused.

"France's version of Knocturn Alley" she replied "Now _officially_ our mother is our guardian, who is usually out collecting bounties, unofficially it me as I simply set traps in the places that I know that they will visit and wait for my magic to alert me when they have been sprung… I really love foreknowledge."

"You need to be careful Fleur, else you may change something drastically" said Rafael causing the person in question to snort.

"Look around you, zis world is already drastically different from the one we know. Besides zet's not like taking down a few scumbags will really change anything in the fight against Voldemort…" She said in response "And speaking of that, I want to talk to you about doing a couple of raids here in Britain Harry."

"What do you mean?"

"Well quite simple" she said "Entire families of Death Eaters are rotting in Askaban, leaving their Ancestral Manors and Gringotts keys and whatever valuables they have in there, completely unguarded and ripe for the taking. We could use that wealth my love… plus having all that gold will allow me to focus less time on finding and collecting bounties and more time in the recruitment and training you want me to do."

"I'll think about it Fleur, and even if I decided to do this we can't begin before July at the earliest." He replied "and speaking of your task, are you sure that those you've chosen will stick by your side?"

"I am" she replied "Well maybe not Princesse d'Heur, she has her own kingdom and her own people to think about, but other than her, I am sure that the rest will follow us."

Harry understood. Regardless, or perhaps because of all that they had gone through together, Fleur cared for the faith of her country and her fellow country men and women. She knew that was no question princess's allegiance would always remain with her country and her people and it must have been for that very reason that Fleur had welcomed her into her fold.

"What about others? Do you plan to recruit any more than those you have told us of?"

"Non… well perhaps Glabrielle when she joins Beaubatons, but other than her…" she said with the shake of her head "I plan on concentrating winning the loyalty and on the training of those who I have already mentioned… for now at the very least… who knows what the future holds."

"So true my love" Harry smiled "After all we would have never guessed that we would have gotten the chance that we have now… let us do our best to prove ourselves worthy of it."

"Oui" she replied… They stood in a comfortable silence for a moment before Fleur said "Rafael, do you mind leaving Harry and I alone, I would like to spend sometime with him, not as warriors but as a couple that we desire to be"

"Very well, enjoy yourselves" said Rafael as he turned around, tossed the package Fleur had tossed to him, into his room, and walked out of the room, intent on giving the couple the privacy we deserve.

"Oh, we shall" came the familiar voice of Harry in reply causing his fellow dimension traveler to smirk as he exited the room. Before making his way up to the great hall, so that he could eat a large breakfast, which he felt he deserved for surviving the torture that Harry so affectionately referred to as their early morning spars. Rafael knew that he was a long way off from being a competent dueler, and an even longer way from achieving a level that Harry would deem acceptable. He knew that he likely could not stand up against any serious opponent without at least a few years of brutal training and that was exactly what Harry was giving him…Until then he wasn't going to be of any use to his friend… well at least magically… But if worst came to worst and he had to face an opponent where the only option was kill or be killed, well…

He felt in his pocket for something that wasn't exactly legal for an ordinary (magical or not) British citizen to carry about, or for any child in any part of the world to carry about to be frank… He had the upbringing of any muggleborn and knew of many of the weapons that muggles had created to defend themselves… he just chose to carry around one of the more concealable usable weapon he could get his hands on… plus he was sure that Death would appreciate the irony of a Death Eater falling to the creations of those that they deemed underneath them.

Rafael's mind turned to other his regular studies… he still had assignments to complete and while their submission date was still far off, it would be better to complete them now rather than wait for the lat minute. He also decided to read his potions text before he went for the class, it was always better to revise before going for Snape class and he resolved to do that the minute he was done eating… for right now he could not help bit lick his lips at the sight of the great feast that was laid out before him and all the other Hogwarts students, mostly Ravenclaws, who were up this early.

* * *

Harry had spoken to the core members of Hydra about teaching the student body at large how to defend themselves… Of course it would be nothing like the training that they themselves would be getting but it would be much better than the vague idea of defense that they would be left with if they left them with Hogwarts erratic DADA course… And after last night's Troll incident most couldn't help but agree…

Incidentally it seemed that Friday afternoons were ideal to have such meetings as it was a free period for most of the school save for first years, who had Hogwarts idea of a Magical Theory Class, which no decent Slytherin would be caught dead in.

The first to be present, for very obvious reasons were Rafael and himself. Then came Tonk's, not surprising considering that she was a seventh year and knew the castle inside and out. The last to arrive from the core group were Daphne and Tracey, both of whom were hidden under the Cloak of Invisibility that Harry had given them. He was taking no chances what so ever considering how he first met them, and until they were at least capable duelers he was taking all the precautions he could in order to ensure their safety. Not that he was worried that they would steal the cloak mind you, as he had long since learnt how to track it (something that only its rightful master could do) and unless either of their families lived in a place with at least Gringotts level wards and the girls sent it to them instantly, there was very little that they could do to stop him from recovering what was rightfully his.

They stood together and spoke for a few minutes before all those that they had invited started arriving… All the members of the Quidditch teams of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw save for the Gryffindor seeker, {Harry's brother, who had acquired his position in almost the exact same way that Harry had in the original time line (not that it mattered), and who hadn't been invited anyway.}, the Patil twins, Percy Weasley, Penelope Clearwater, Neville Longbottem, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Terry Booth, Antony Goldstein and Antony George, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Earnie McMillan, Cho Chang (who wasn't the Ravenclaw seeker this year, but would certainly nab that position next year) and Sui Li.

Then of course there was the usual chatting and mingling that happened when there was a large crowd of students with no clear purpose. A quick bang from Tonks's wand quickly caught their attention as she used the voice amplifying charm on herself before stepping forward to speak.

"Welcome my friends" she said as she looked at the small crowd of students from various years and all four houses "I know that some of you here do not trust Slytherins and by default myself. I know that some of you here will be more than a little dubious after you here what I am about to suggest. But I ask, no I plead you to simply give it a chance."

There were several frowns all around the small classroom where in they all stood. For Black was not someone to ask for attendance like this, nor was she one to truly speak to a crowd like this, or speak like this at all. She was truly behaving out of character but considering that there was a Troll in the castle the other day… well most of them felt that they could ignore the odd behavior… for now.

"I am a Seventh Year Slytherin Prefect, a title which unlike the other three houses is not simply given, but rather earned through sweat and blood and battles of all kind. I am a Black, a member of the most utterly ruthless Most Ancient and Most Noble family, that no one in their right mind would dare challenge, least they feel our wrath, and above all I am a survivor. Strange thing are beginning to emerge and Hogwarts will be the epicenter of it all." She said "Last night a Troll got into the school, last night were in more danger than we ever were throughout our entire lives, and keep in mind that all of us were born in a period of war. Last night showed me how truly lacking a good majority of us are in our DADA abilities, which considering that it is a core course shouldn't have happened in the first place."

Tonks paused for a breath; letting her audiences minds wander for a bit before she spoke again "It is to that effort that I have decided to take matters into my own hands… I propose that all of us here form a group so that we can learn how to defend ourselves… so that we can truly lean the practical side of our DADA course… I know a majority of you all will be expecting me to lead this group, to teach you all that I know… but I will not, for among all of us here is a person who can easily wipe the floor with me in a duel…"

That sentence everyone that knew had heard of the seventh year Slytherin prefect before today. Tonks was widely recognized as the best dueler in the school. It was also well known that she took immense pride in that fact. So for her to publicly say something like this was no small feet…

A figure stepped forward… a person who was almost the same height as Tonks and dressed in the Slytherin school uniform complete with the hat. A pair of black gloves adorned is hands and black smoke seemed to pour out from his collar and was sucked into his hat… leaving no clue as to his or her identity, save for two glowing emerald orbs, right were his or her eyes would be.

"Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and of course my fellow Slytherins…" the figure said, his voice seeming to give no clue as to his identity. Young, old, male, female… its voice seemed to be a mixture of all four, yet it had a captivating, and almost alluring effect on all those present. "I thank you all for joining us here."

The figure paused, giving all those assembled time to accept his appearance and wonder about who exactly he was (well a Slytherin obviously, but which?), before he spoke "Though I have never boasted or gloated, or even let the majority of the house know about it, I am by far the best duelist in my house… and since the current best duelist in this school are all from Slytherin, I can state that I am the best duelist in the school… well among the student body anyway… my head of house is probably one of the most talented duelers of his generation despite his love for potions, Professor Flitwick is an ex-dueling champion, and as for Dumbledore…"

The sentence was left unfinished but everyone knew what he meant… despite all of Dumbledore's grandfatherly behavior and easy-going exterior, he was one of the strongest wizards in the last four centuries…

Still Rafael couldn't help but smirk at his cloaked mentor's choice of words… He never said that he wasn't better than either head of house, for that would have certainly been a lie. And as for the leader of the Light… well Harry believed that in spite of everything he had gone through and how far he had come, Dumbledore still outclassed him… The man was a full century his senior and had lived dozens of years in war… more so than he had in peace… It actually made you wonder how the man could have been so idealistic considering all that he must have seen and experienced over his long long life.

"Still Professor Flitwick is in charge of teaching us all we need to know, and more, about charms" he continued "Dumbledore is busy with his duties as the Headmaster, Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwamp, and so he has no time to care for us… And I am sure that you all agree that our DADA Classes are usually less than sub-par."

He paused, and walk forward, the crowd of assembled students parting as he got closer to them. "What I am proposing is this… let me teach you, let me train you all… and learn, learn as much as you can, learn as much as you are willing too, for I am willing to impart quite a lot of my knowledge to you all… and in a year from now when all of us meet…" he cast a glance at the place where six seventh years were standing "You can decide then whether you wish to continue under my tutelage, or search for some other means of studying…. Whatever your choice is I won't hold it against you, but you have two choices, one then, the other now. This is the only time I will be offering you all the chance to learn what I am willing to teach…. Which will be a trial period for most of you until the start of the next academic year, where you will have to choose whether you wish to continue learning under me or not. Remember that there will be no second chances for all of you gathered here, so choose wisely."

…

"Well that's all well and good" said a voice from the audience "But how do we know that you truly are as good as you say you are… and for that matter, who are you and why do you choose to hide."

There were mutterings among the students but before he could reply, Cedric Diggory of all people spoke up "Does it even really matter? I mean even if he isn't half as good as he leads us to believe the fact remains that he will still be much better than what we all have to learn with. I will be the first to say that you shouldn't disrespect your teachers but, can anyone honestly tell me that they truly think thy can learn to defend themselves under Quirrel's tutelage?"

Harry (AN: who in-case anyone hasn't figured it out by now is the one disguised) couldn't help but think back to the battle at Gringotts and the fact that he had Voldemort, possibly the strongest Wizard born in the last Century (AU: Remember that Dumbledore is over a hundred years old), sticking out of the back of his head. So Harry was quite sure that could easily learn to defend themselves, and a whole lot more, under Quirrel's tutelage... Well if the man properly trained them that is...

"Besides I trust Tonks, and she has never steered me, or anyone else wrong" Cedric continued, and all the Slytherins had to restrain themselves from snorting "So yes, I will agree to learn under you."

This caused most of the rest of the Hufflepuffs gathered there to show their support, as Cedric, whether he knew it or not, was already seen as the leader of his house. The rest of the students seemed unsure, the Ravenclaws especially, though that changed when Penelope Clearwater stepped forward and said "Well, it's like Cedric said, we aren't learning anything from Quirrel so why don't we take this chance, after all I'm inclined to think that this might prove fruitful… Plus I spoke to the Gray Lady before coming here and she told me that the person who was going to head this little group had organized the ghosts into groups and sent them out throughout the school. I shudder to think what would have happened if he didn't do that, and the troll had found one of the houses as they were heading back to their classrooms. I… no we all owe you our thanks for that and I believe that event shows us that you have a level head and that you would simply not make empty boasts… so I for one am in."

Most of the Ravenclaws added their inclination to join the group after that little speech, though some decided to reserve judgment until they saw which side the Gryffindors would go, as the Slytherins, well those that were present anyway, would follow their prefect.

Oliver looked at his team for a moment before nodding his consent and saying "We're in."

Most of the wizards and witches in training, with the exception of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Beaters, Justin Finch-Fletchley and two seventh years, decided to join the group and Harry couldn't help but smirk… He knew that some of them had simply joined because of peer pressure, (not that anyone present even had the time to pressure anyone else, but it was the thought that counts). He also knew that a majority of them had reservations despite their decision to join the group.

Still, Harry had led the DA in his fifth year. He had trained and lead squads during the third war. He would make sure that none of those present regretted their decision to join, even if they only stayed for a year.

"I'm glad that you all have decided to take me up on my offer, and I hope that none of you come to regret it" he said "However, I was expecting at least half of you all to have left, and while I am glad that this is not the case I will have to make some arrangements to the way I had planned to train you all. There is no way I can train you all at once, so instead I shall divide you all into groups of seven. I would like all the seventh years, Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater to form the first group. The second group shall be the Gryffindor house team and a first year Gryffindor named Hermione Granger, who is unfortunately not present here. Roger Davis, you and your fellow chasers, Cho Chang, Terry Booth, Sui Li and your cousin Tracey shall for the third group. The fourth group shall be the remaining members of the Hufflepuff team (AN: Keeper is a seventh year), Antony Goldstein, Antony George and Daphne Greengrass. The fifth shall be Rafael Rivera, Neville Longbottem, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot and Padma and Parvati Patil. Does anyone have a problem with the groups?

No objections were voiced.

"Very well…" he said "Now if I remember correctly, one of you here asked why I was in disguise, why I don't just show you all who I am. Well the answer is this. You know that I am a Slytherin, and despite how much I despise it, I cannot deny what my house has become. I will try to fight against it, try to restore order to the house of depravity that it has become, but there is a difference between trying to subtly change a house and lead a group like this. A major group filled with members of all four houses. I will not risk retribution which is sure to come if my identity is known when word of this group gets out, on those that I care about, and unlike the rest of the Slytherins here who come from powerful Neutral or Light families who will support and protect them, my family and I have never been on the best of terms and I am afraid that our relationship, if it could even be called that, has only degraded since I have come to Hogwarts."

He paused for a moment before continuing "When Hydra was started among a small group of six students, it was meant to be a family… now despite how large it has grown in a span of a few minutes I hope that… we all can get along and trust and respect one another. I hold no illusions that there won't be many a disagreement and fights among our group, but I hope that we can still remain a tight knit group as we all learn to defend ourselves from attack."

…

…

…

"Now then, despite what you all may think I may train two or even more groups together at a time, I simply divided you all into cells that consist of people whom you all are familiar with." He said bringing them back to business "Now then, how about we all start discussing schedules."

* * *

**Author Note**

**Ok… I think that this part was a bit too bland, and if you agree with me then let me apologize for that. It was Filter, it HAD too be filter... Sorry about that...  
**

**Secondly let me just point out that all the new recruits aren't even remotely dedicated to Hydra at this point… They just want good defense lessons… I mean, if you were learning a subject taught by an absolutely hopeless teacher wouldn't you want someone to help you understand it… Most of them aren't sure of the group but figure that there is nothing wrong with giving it a try…**

**Thirdly, before anyone flames me for making the Gray Lady seem interactive then the book (at least too me portrays her as more of a loaner and an eternal mourner), I want to say that Harry will be asking the Gray Lady about that in the following chapters.**

**Fourthly… I love complements, I accept constructive critics reviews to my work, I means it does hurt a bit to read a harmful review now and again, but what can you do… What I do not like is the flames that I keep on getting for my SI OC… Don't like it fine… want to leave after you found out that its an SI, fine… don't keep spamming me about it and reviewing me about it unless you want give suggestions as to how you want my incarnation in this peace of literature to turn out… I mean, its pointless as I have already centered him as a main character in the story, and I can't just eliminate him this early as they aren't even facing anything remotely dangerous (well aside for the Troll, but Harry made plans within plans within plans as to deal with that menace)… so can you just leave well enough alone and stop giving me scalding comments about it… PLEASE !  
**

**Fifthly (is that even a word?) I'm SO sorry about the Spellings, I've gone back and revised my earlier chapters and there is no doubt that there are still many a things that I've missed... there may be a few in this chapter as well... Sorry about that.**

**Lastly, I am sorry for not updating in such a long while and I regret to inform you that the next chapter will take even longer… Things have come up and I need to see to them and so I will not be free till late March at the earliest…  
If in get a good amount of time before then I'll try and begin the next chapter but don't expect the next chapter before the start of next year.**

**Thank you all for reading this and I wish you all the best for whatever you all are in the process of doing… Oh and don't forget to review (hopefully good reviews, bit I'm not expecting too many for this chapter since I myself am not happy with the finished product…)**

**Rafaelout Out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I have absolutely no claim whatsoever to the Harry Potter book series or any related media and/or merchandise**

**This story was inspired by The Travel Secrets Series by E4mj and I'm Still Here by Kathryn518**

* * *

"Depulso" Rafael murmured as he shot a conveniently placed vase at his opponent who simply leaned to the side to dodge what was obviously less that an inconvenience for him. Having anticipated that his opponent would do that he had already begun the summoning charm for the vase the minute he had banished it, and had finished it just seconds after his opponent had dodged it. This time it did connect much to his surprise as he had never been able to land a decent hit before. Despite this surprise he didn't miss a beat as he summoned the rug his opponent had stumbled onto when the vase had crashed into his back of his head, hoping to throw him off his feat, or at the very least momentarily distract him. His opponent however, had simply stepped back with the grace of an aristocrat, without even the slightest hint that the rug had been pulled out from under his feat as he simultaneously fired a stunner at Rafael, who raised his wand to shield before realizing that his opponents spell would fly directly above him. He had only seconds to wonder if his opponent was more of-balance than he let on, considering the bad aim of that spell, before he felt his legs pulled up from under him and felt the stunner hit him square in the stomach before he backed out.

Harry smirked as his hand went to the back of his head and began rubbing the place where the vase had hit him. He had to admit that he certainly hadn't been expecting that one, which showed him that his partner had the ability to think completely out of the box in battle… or that he himself was slipping. He personally hoped that it was the former, but he did make a note to up his own personal training in case it was the latter.

after a quick 'finite' at the stunned Slytherin, Harry conjured a table and two chairs, one on either side of it. Taking a seat in one he summoned one of the school House-Elves and asked them to bring some refreshments as Rafael slowly pulled himself up and sank onto the other chair.

"My complements to you my friend" Harry said "You have been performing exceedingly well and always manage to show some unexpected improvisation. I will admit that I wasn't expecting you to be able to land a blow on me so soon."

"Please we both know that it was most likely a fluke, there were dozens of way you could have stopped that vase, most of which would have left me open to your retaliation" Rafael replied "Though I will admit that I have to get creative with my limited arsenal of just five spells, if I have any hope of even managing to land a hit on you."

"You do realize that I only used two spells in our entire fight" Harry responded.

"Two spells chosen from dozens, possibly hundreds, that you know" Rafael said and Harry had to give him that one "Not to mention the years and years of experience that you have under your belt."

"Which makes your hit with the vase all the more impressive, despite being a fluke as you call it" Harry said reaching for the cup of tea that was in front of him and taking a sip. "How is your cell?"

"Surprisingly cooperative and interactive considering that it's a cell that contains members of all four houses." Rafael replied "Then again the most vocal houses are usually Slytherin and Gryffindor, and considering that I doubt that Neville is going to do anything, I know I'm not… maybe its not so surprising that we're getting along. That being said though, we are still an incomplete cell."

Harry looked at him

"You're planning on adding someone, aren't you…? And considering that my entire group is made up of our year mates I'm gonna take a hazardous guess and say that this potential recruit is a first year." Rafael said "But why not invite that person to the… is it a Slytherin?"

"Yes…" Harry replied "Either Blaize Zabini or Leona Moon"

"Both of whom are our year mates. In fact our entire group is made up of first years… Why?" asked Rafael deep in thought. Harry didn't answer, but rather made a carry on gesture, and so Rafael tried to "Other than grouping the seventh years together, perfectly understandable by the way, all the other groups are made up of older and younger students, most of who already have bonds with others in their cell…. I get that when the oldest students graduate, they can form their own Hydra cells in whichever field they choose to go to, and the rest of the group can adopt members from the first and second year to fill up the ranks and well… end up creating a continuous cycle…. But our group doesn't fit into that pattern unless…"

"Unless…" Harry prompted, extremely pleased that his friend had been able to see what he was trying to do.

"…Unless you want a specialized cell, a combat oriented cell" Rafael said, the pleased look on his friend's face told him that he was correct. "Susan Bones, the niece of the current Head of the DMILE Amelia Bones, who will no doubt arrange for special training for the last living link to her brother… and knowing how close Susan and Hannah are, there is no doubt in my mind that the blonde Huffelpuff will be included in those classes. Neville Longbottem was one of the original members of the DA and he led it during his seventh year, when you went gallivanting around the countryside looking for Horcruxes… And then there is me…"

"And then there is you" Harry replied. He knew that Padma would likely be one of the greatest assets to the DMILE when she had joined… in fact she was often called the second coming of Mad-Eye Moody. Parvati… well Parvati was dead by that time, which probably had something to do with Padma's attitude… never the less Harry had high hopes for the both of them, especially considering that they were both in Ravens Nest this time around. "Regardless of how much we work in the shadows and the politics we play, there will be open battles, and regardless of how skilled I am, I am just one man… And even if we both know that though Fleur will always have my back she cannot be here all the time… So yes, I am trying to create a specialized cell, though you have my word I will not send you into the field unless I feel that you all are truly ready… or unless I have no other choice."

"Then why not train me with the others?"

"Well, for one you always stick close to me and with my track record… Well the best way to put it is that a worst case scenario for your cell would see them in a deathly conflict during our fifth year if my memories hold true. However there is a good chance that you will see such a scene sometime next year, or possibly this year itself." Harry replied "the second reason is that you are also a part of my… well inner circle for lack of a better term, and trust me when I say that I intend to put Daphne, Tracey, Tonks and Hermione through the same paces that I am putting you through. And well lastly the best way to ensure that you have absolute command of your cell is not just to ensure that you have good relations with them and ensure that they acknowledge you as their leader, but that you are also the strongest of them all."

"I see…" muttered Rafael "Harry, don't you have a match to be getting ready for."

"I do… Today's the first match of the season, which incidentally seems to be the most anticipated" Harry replied as he twirled his wand, before he stood up from the chair he was sitting on and moved a few steps back "What almost everybody doesn't realize is that it is also going to be a clash of brother vs brother… And when it comes to Quidditch… I'm gonna destroy him."

Rafael didn't get a chance to respond as he heard the tell tale zoom of a broom, he barely had enough time to see the broom slow down enough for Harry to be able to jump on it before he watched his best friend take a very sharp u-turn and zoom of down the corridor.

"Hm, Showoff" Rafael murmured as he grinned.

* * *

"Hey girls" Rafael said as he arrived next to his to Daphne and Tracey in the Slytherin Quidditch stand.

"Rafael, where have you been?" asked Tracey before she took a whiff "And why do you smell like cinnamon?"

"I went for a bath before coming here" Rafael replied "Harry and I were dueling and before the match and well… I didn't want to come here all drenched in sweat."

"My my, how thoughtful" muttered Daphne "But if you and Harry were dueling, how did he reach here before the start of the match?"

"For some strange reason there is actually no rule against flying in the castle" Rafael replied, his eyes scanning the players for the roommate "And… Woah"

He watched as Harry broke into a dive, with his brother giving chase. Charles, who was riding a Nimbus two thousand courtesy of his parents, was easily catching up to Harry who was riding a Cleansweep seven, which though a professional broom, was made for keepers and beaters, with a short burst of controlled speed to say, save a quaffle or hit a bludger, and could in no way match the sheer speed of a Nimbus two thousand. It seemed though that was what Harry was aiming for as they both flew very fast straight towards the ground, which Charles easily gaining ground on the Slytherin Potter, when at the last second Harry pull up leaving his brother heading for the ground at ridiculously high speeds. I do not believe that I need to explain what happens when something going so fast his something as hard, solid and sturdy as say, the ground…

It was very painful. That was a given as Madam Pomfrey was already rushing to the downed Potter heir. Charles would no doubt be out of the game for quite a while.

"I don't believe it" screamed Lee Jordan from the podium "That was a perfectly executed Wronski Feint from Potter – Harry Potter that is. While Slytherin is known for its less than stellar tactics, that was nothing less than a perfect maneuver even by professional standards. It seems though that move might just have taken his brother out of the game, I… It seems that we have just gotten word on the status of Charles Potter – The Boy-Who-Lived will be out of the match for the next hour at minimum, while our dear Madam Pomfrey tends to him.

Madam Hooch signals the players to get back into position and with a quick blow of her silver whistle the game resumes.

"Alicia Spinnet has taken possession of the Quaffle" Lee said "She immediately passes it to Angelina Johnsson – no Slytherin has taken possession of the Quaffle. Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint has possession of the Quaffle and off he goes – Flints within range of the Gryfindor hoops, he's going to sc – no, nice save there by Gryffindor keeper Oliver Wood – who immediately passes it to Katie Bell – who manages to dive around Flint, flies across the field and – OUCH – Bell's taken out by a bludger to the back of the head – Quaffle is now in possession of Slytherin – Chaser Adrian Pucey is now flying towards the Gryffindor goalpost with the Quaffle in had and – is blocked by a bludger courtesy of Weasley, I can't tell if it's Fred or George, but it was a nice shot – Johnsson is now back in possession of the Quaffle – she's really flying now – dodges a bludger and – Slytherin Keeper Bletchley dives – misses – Gryffindor scores."

Harry swerved… While he could end the match now unimpeded, thanks to the fact that Gryffindor no longer had a Seeker for an hour. Gryfindor's lineup, despite being made of a second year, four third years and a fifth year, could even now be matched up to a professional team… well a low league professional team, but a professional team none the less. It was the reason why they had remained undefeated (save for one cloudy dementor infested match) during the six years that Harry studied in Hogwarts. While he could catch the snitch when it appeared, chances were that Gryffindor would be so ahead that they would still win the match. He needed to take someone out. Keepers were protected by the rules of the game, which left the chasers and the beaters… the question now though was not who, but it was how?

And then he saw his chance… Fred and George Weasley were waiting eagerly for the two bludgers that were heading towards the troublesome duo. And both Angelina and Alicia were moving straight below him, passing the quaffle as they did so. And he smiled. He had a plan now, a plan which had an over seventy-five percent chance of failure but a plan none the less.

And then he dived.

"Harry Potter dives" said Lee "With no seeker opposing him there is certainly no chance that this is a feint – which means that he must have seen the Snitch – Both Weasleys are taking no chances as they shoot both bludgers at him.

Harry smirked as the heard the duel TWACKS and he put all his strength in pulling the tip of his broom up – and watched as the bludgers went soaring under him and hit the two Gryffindor chasers.

"And it WAS a feint" screamed Lee "Harry tricked the Gryffindor beaters into taking out their own chasers – yes, I can confirm that both Angelina and Alicia are down for the count – and with the Gryffindor team now possessing only two beaters and a keeper and a chaser, Slytherin has got this in the bag."

"Flint" screamed Harry as he looked at his team captain. "Use this chance to crush them with goals. But no dirty play, we have been playing a clean game so far, let's keep doing that. And then we'll see how they can insult our team with nothing to use against us."

Flint nodded and started yelling instructions to his chasers.

As much as he would like to say that Slytherin managed to crush Gryffindor, the truth was that Wood was a phenomenal keeper. Harry could easily see the frustration building on Flint's face as out of almost two dozen shots that they took, they had only managed to score four goals against Gryffindor. And Fred and George were relentless as they kept on whacking bludgers at the Slytherin Chasers, with reckless abandon, while Slytherin's beaters could only try and fail miserably, to keep up with the twins. This of course confirmed what he knew right from the get go, that this team was Gryffindor's – no the school's finest line up till date – and possibly of all time.

Harry heard the Madam Hooch's whistle and he knew that he had to end this fast. Angelina and Alicia were back in the air, and the Gryffindor team as a whole were looking for some payback.

And then he spotted it, that little gold ball almost taunting him appeared on the other side of the pitch. Harry knew that he couldn't afford to lose it now, so leaned forward and flew as fast as the broom allowed him too.

"Ladies and Gentleman Harry Potter is zooming through the pitch" shouted Lee 'The first time he did that he took the lion's seeker out of the game – the second time he took two of three chasers out. Is he trying – I see it, I see the Snitch – Harry Potter is flying straight towards the snitch.

The Weasley twins, who had been hesitant in hitting bludgers towards him in case this was another one of his ploys, now hit both bludgers straight at him with as much force as they could muster.

Unfortunately for them it was much too late as Harry Potter rolled on his broom dodging the first bludger, before being thrown straight into the air. It seemed that that one of the bludgers had hit the back edge of his broom, bit that was enough to throw him off. Fortunately Harry managed to catch the snitch while in midair, unfortunately he was now heading straight towards the Slytherin stands – without his broom.

Without a seconds thought Rafael whipped out his wand and yelled "Arresto Momento!"

That spell was one of the spells that Harry had declared, was a must for all members of Hydra to learn. Unfortunately they hadn't even started learning that spell yet and Rafael knew that using an unpracticed spell could more often than not result in a bang.

That being said he knew that spell was one of several that Harry could use wandlessly, and Rafael wasn't exerting his will on the spell rather he was doing the exact opposite, he was trying to keep any magic from flowing through the wand.

Basically he had just pointed his wand at his teacher and yelled out two meaningless words.

However that did give his friend, who had excellent hearing even while falling through the air, to use his own wandless magic to slow himself down. And he did.

Harry's speed drastically decreased before coming to a stop around two dozen inches away from his fellow dimension traveller and directly a foot above the stand, before he canceled his spell and landed on his feet with a light thump.

"Oh man that was close" said Harry "Thank goodness that you knew that spell!"

"Yeah – thank goodness" repeated Rafael as the crowd of Slytherin's agreed with their seeker. They may not like him but that didn't mean that they wanted one of their own badly harmed.

Daphne however was the only one who didn't say anything as her eyes narrowed.

* * *

"That was amazing" said Tracey the inner circle of Hydra (save for Hermione) made their way to the dungeons after the match. "That was absolutely amazing. I mean I knew that you were a competent dueler, warder, teacher, but you're a great Quidditch playear too? That's just beyond belief."

"Agreed" said Daphne stoically "You are extraordinarily talented – especially for an eleven year old."

Harry's face remained impassive, but Rafael (who was thankfully walking slightly behind the two girls) couldn't help but blanch. Tonks was bad enough, but they both knew that she would get suspicious considering how close she was to the Potter family. Daphne though was a complete unknown – but then again she was one of the intended inner circle so…

Rafael looked into Harry's eyes who quickly cast a wandless legilimency on him, and left his thought in his head "For now we will leave her alone, and we shall decide what to do by the end of this year, or the stat of the next."

Rafael, who was now walking side by side with the others, gave a small nod of his head, a nod that went completely unnoticed by Tracey, but not by Daphne, whose mind processed her observations at a remarkable rate.

'He just looked at him before completely nodding out of the blue' though the heir of the House Greengrass 'wandless legilimency?' No, despite the fact that he is undoubtedly a prodigy there is absolutely no way that he could be that proficient in the mind arts, especially considering all his other skills… Actually his other skills seem to advance for him as well. Though his knowledge of wards could always be limited to a single set that his parents must have thought him in case he needs to secure an area – But he comes from a family of Gryffindors, so why would he be taught a Slytherin practice…? It seems that I have too little knowledge to draw any definitive conclusions now.'

"So, how are your cells are progressing?" asked Harry He did not need to read her mind to know exactly what Daphne was thinking about and he wanted to keep her away from that line of thought for as long as possible.

"Quite well" said the girl who would soon come to be known as the Ice Queen of Slytherin "The four Hufflepuffs in my batch are all hard workers, and the Ravens are pretty perceptive, and obviously smart. And they all listen whenever I come up with plans and/or tactics for our spars with you."

"My cells doing pretty good as well" added Tracey "Though I think there may be a bit of friction between them and I considering that they are all from Ravenclaw. Why did you set me up with a team of Ravens again?"

"Because the knowledge that you can get from hanging around them is immense" Rafael replied. He had asked Harry about that cell the day he'd created it wondering why he had put six ravens in a single cell, and could clearly remember his friends reasoning "Plus with you showing them your natural cunning when I conduct defense sessions for your cell, your year mates will soon get use to listening to you. When the Senior Ravens graduate four years from now, your fellow cell members will be used to taking orders from you and won't object to you taking charge and adding three first or second years as the chasers replacements."

"Daphne" continued Harry "With your keen analytical mind and thirst for knowledge, you do not need to be surrounded by Ravens to continue to learn beyond what is taught in class. Rather what you need is someone to show you how to lead and men and women who will not hesitate in following your commands. Right now Cedric, with his natural charisma, is very clearly the leader of you cell and you can learn a lot simply by observing him. And when he graduates you will take control of the cell and prepare lead it until you too graduate."

"Every is tactical to you huh" said Daphne "Every single thing – not that I expected anything less from a Slytherin really, I wouldn't even be surprised if you were the one to set up the attack on our first day."

Rafael looked at her sharply "How could you ever think that! He would Never –"

"But you did take advantage of it!" said Daphne "Didn't you?"

"Daphne" shouted Rafael "How could you…!"

"Enough" said Harry forestalling them both "Daphne it's true that I did take advantage. I took advantage of two girls who were the same age as I am and I started training them so that such a situation would never happen again. In the span of a few days I more than tripled the numbers of our merry little group and divided them into cells. Cells divided in such a way that they were led, or would be led by people who I know I can place my trust in. In a span of a few days I have no doubt started a network that would benefit me for the rest of my life, and I am assured of that because I know that you two would eventually end up in charge of your cells, and you two owe me."

Harry took a deep breath while the blonde haired Slytherin looked at him with an impassive face.

"But what do you get out of it? By the end of this year you will no doubt be among some of the most proficient fighters in the school, and by our OWL year, you two will be able to engage at least three average aurors at once and no doubt come out victorious" said Harry, knowing that the average aurors these days were a little more than a joke "You will no doubt benefit from the network just as I would, and will have made connections which would certainly be difficult for you to obtain otherwise due to your position as a Slytherin and a Greengrass. You will end up leading several people who would no doubt trust you with their life. A trust which is very rare I might add, and you will be part of something that could potentially revolutionize our world."

"And that's what you want isn't it?" ask Daphne softly, though loud enough for all the other members of the conversation to hear.

"Our world is dying Daphne, you cannot deny that" said Harry in an equally soft tone "I hope change that, to bring our world to new heights, which is the very reason for Hydra's existence. And even if I fail none of us have lost anything. Hydra will still exist which each of its members trusting each other implicitly, and the skills that you gain from your training will stay with you for the rest of your life. And we are all friends here are we not? So I must ask you Daphne Greengrass, is this not enough, because if it isn't you are free to leave."

And with that he walked forward, with Rafael and Tonks flanking him, leaving a thoughtful blonde behind, who contemplated in silence. A silence that would not last for long because as soon as she knew that those three were out of earshot, Tracey rounded upon her best friend and yelling "What on earth is wrong with you Daphne? What were you trying to accomplish with that?"

"I was testing him" said Daphne in a soft voice "There is something off about him, something that I doubt that I will ever know, but now I know what I wanted to know."

"And what is that?" her best friend asked in exasperation

"That we can trust him."

Tracey gave her an odd look "We knew that right from the get go Daph, and even if we didn't it wouldn't matter because we owe a debt to him."

"I know" she replied with a small smile.

Tracey frowned, she could tell that her friend had acquired something else and she wasn't going to tell her what. Her little lie about testing if he was trustworthy was so blatantly false that only a complete stranger would not see through it, and even when Tracey called her on it she still persisted with it. For now she would let it go. She trusted Daphne and if her friend wasn't going to share than she wouldn't pry. But she did resolve to keep an eye on her, her... and Harry Potter.

* * *

"She was testing you" said Tonks.

"Of course she was" Harry responded "All of a sudden Hydra became too large a group with too much thought and effort behind it. This is not something that anyone would simply create, especially a Slytherin."

"She needed motive" said Tonk's realization.

"And you gave it to her" added Rafael "Making Hydra's primary goal seem as your own personal ticket to a long wealthy life, which would have not been disrupted if its secondary, much more _ambitious _goal failed."

"Even so" muttered Tonks "She still doesn't fully trust you"

"But she will follow me, and that's all I need" replied Harry with a slight smile.

"And speaking of followers, what have you done with Hermione?" asked Rafael in a slightly accusing tone

"I beg your pardon?"

"I saw you talking to her the day that Malfoy decided to challenge your brother to a midnight duel and since then she's started hanging out with Ron and Charles"

Harry sighed and then cast a mobile privacy ward around them "My brother is a lot like me Rafael, our childhood's aside he would do the exact same things that I would"

"Meaning?"

"I would have died quite a few times without her helping me… and I need to keep an eye on my brother"

"So you're using her as a spy?" asked Rafael incredulously "Hermione Granger, a spy?"

"I just told her that I wanted to her to help him out if she could" he answered coolly "That I couldn't because of how deep house rivalries are."

"You don't need to tell me that" muttered Rafael, it was quite apparent how deep the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor ran in the first week. It also explained how Hermione agreed to this charade and how she hadn't been caught. She herself didn't know that she was acting as a spy, all she believed that she was doing was helping the brother of one of her first friends in Hogwarts. And if by any chance she became part of the Golden Trio or tattled to Harry about Charles… well no one could really call her out on that, and no one could really accuse her of being a spy, not that anyone would when they consider just how she was seen… "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"That if she gets in over her head, you'll get her out"

"That's something that I would do even if I didn't promise you."

"Just promise me"

"I promise."

* * *

It had been weeks since the game, almost two months to be precise and Harry was looking forward to this night. It was the morning of Christmas and he had plans for tonight, plans that involved gazing at the stars under the moonlight with the woman who was always standing by his side, and with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

"You know you should stop grinning like a loon" said his best friend "People will notice you know."

"Who cares, it's not like they'll find out what's on my mind" Harry replied and Rafael had to concede the point. Short of tying him to a chair and flushing out the potion that Harry drank to neutralize truth and love potions, and feeding him Veritaserum, there was nothing that they could do to find out what was on the dimension traveler's mind unless he himself told them.

"True enough…" said Rafael trailing away as he was struck by a sudden thought "Harry, are you ready to handle the serpent king?

It took a couple of seconds for Harry to realize what his friend meant, and he nodded in affirmative and said "Fleur and I are working on a strategy to end it, a strategy that should be completed by the end of summer next year."

"Do we have to slay it? It could possibly be a treasure trove of information about the founders if we could somehow capture it and get it to cooperate with us."

"And how do you propose to do that?"

"I… have no idea" said Rafael when he realized the reality of what was truly being asked. Sure he was hoping that the Basilisk was still sane and willing to talk with a parselmouth but if not then what could they do? Sure Harry had defeated a Basilisk bit that was more due to luck than anything else, there was absolutely no way they were going to try that again, even if they could easily acquire a goblin made enchanted sword and already have a phoenix.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance" said a smooth deep baritone causing the two of them to jump and immediately point their wands at the source of the voice, the ghostly visage of the Bloody Baron "That is, if you tell me how you know of the King of Serpents and why would you need slay or bind it?'

"Research" said Harry, making a mental note to look into some spirit blocking wards, while simultaneously thankful that he already had a pre-made excuse, "We are looking into that hypocrite of a dark lord, who is actually the son of a muggle and a squib and whose real name is Tom Riddle. Looking into his school years we discovered that the fabled Chamber of Secrets was opened while he was in school and the accused at the time, who was Hagrid of all people, had been raising an Acromantula, hardly a beast capable of petrifying people and Myrtie said that the last thing she remembers were a great big pair of yellow eyes. There was not a mark on her ghost, hence poisoning is out, and the only beast that can kill with a glare is the Basilisk.

"We suspect that the entrance to Lord Slytherin's chamber is under her washroom, but that is just sheer speculation at this point" continued Rafael "Regardless, the fact remains that there a Basilisk hidden here, whether it is Lord Slytherins or a creation of Riddle it is still a weapon that the Dark Lord can use. And as such we were discussing how to deprive him of it before he can once again unleash it on this school."

The Baron was silent for a moment, before he said "You are right, the entrance is under Second-floor girls' lavatory and that Tom Riddle can control Slytherin's Basilisk because he is his blood and heir. However if someone were to claim that house then he would have no more control over it than any parselmouth. Another way to control the basilisk is to bind it to yourself with a familiar ritual. It would eliminate all the power that the Dark Lord has over it, but I would not recommend doing so unless the Basilisk is willing."

"Is it still sane though?" asked Rafael "It has been here for almost a thousand years and there is absolutely no telling what harm could have been done to it by Voldemort."

"That is indeed the question" replied the Baron "However that is not something you two can ascertain without risking your lives. On the other I am a ghost, hence I cannot die. Furthermore I am Slytherin's ghost and a parselmouth myself. I will ascertain whether she is still sane or not. In the event that she is one of you will have to bond with her. And the other should develop a strategy to slay her should she be beyond the realm of reason."

"It is a sound strategy, but how do I prepare a familiar bonding ritual for a basilisk?" Harry asked.

The Baron smiled before he replied, and began teaching them about the bonding ritual, which lead to a lesson on Familiars, which both Harry and Rafael were grateful for.

* * *

A little over an hour later

"How did it go?" asked a very serious ghostly voice of the otherwise mischievous Peeves "That was your second major interaction with him after all."

"It was interesting" the Baron replied "That boy is a breath of fresh air that much is certain. He has noticed a very fatal and potentially lethal security problem which even we ourselves didn't see. What amazed me though was not just that the boy was a parselmouth but that they were trying to find some way to speak with her, possibly even save her, instead of planning to outright kill her like the majority of his kind would."

"Her,,,?" asked Peeves. It was rhetorical of course and the Baron didn't answer as the Poltergeist soon put two and two together like only he could "Of course, out of all the issues that were brought about when implementing that security protocol, this was one that wasn't even thought of. I know that you will be going down to see if she can be saved, and I will accompany you if you allow me to… but other than that what did you think of him"

"Like I said just a moment ago, he is a breath of fresh air, they both are" said the Baron "though there is something off about him… I can't exactly put my finger on it but I know it's there"

"You certainly seemed to enjoy teaching them about familiars" said Peeves with a grin "I thought you said that you put those days behind you."

"Teaching classes yes. I have no intention of becoming like Binns who himself is tired of teaching his subject" he replied "But I have no problem giving a few short lectures here and there to those who truly want to learn."

"Short? You were with them for more than an hour!" replied the Poltergeist, before he sprouted a maniacal grin and started speaking in his usual high pitched voice "Now if you'll excuse me your Bloodiness, mischief waits for no one!"

Peeves didn't even finished his sentence as he did a back flip and zoomed away with the Baron watching with a fond grin on his face as he muttered to himself "You truly are one of a kind my friend!"

* * *

"It's beautiful isn't it?" said a very familiar voice

Rafael turned his head slightly, He recognized the voice almost instantly and her appearance was spot on, he however knew that she was probably on a plane by now, so…

"You know that anyone who looks at the list of students who were staying back would instantly see that Hermione Granger is not there, plus you're a well-known metamorph. Anyone with common sense will realize that you're masquerading as her."

"Common sense is uncommon in the wizarding world Rafael" she said as she sat down beside and watched the beautiful view of the sun setting over the black lake that the Astronomy tower offered "Actually it's exceedingly rare. And those who do have enough to notice won't care."

"I agree, though I doubt that you need the disguise considering that we're alone" Rafael replied, and on seeing her mouth open to respond he said "And it's not like you won't know if anyone decides to come here considering the half a dozen alert and notice me not wards you layered over the entrance before coming here."

"Am I really that predictable?" she asked as her features started to change. Her currently bushy brown hair started to recede back into her skull, rapidly changing its shade to a dark pink with purple highlights, her eyes taking on an amber like quality as her face morphed into those regal, yet strikingly beautiful features that there common among all the current daughters of the Ancient house of Black. Her body grew taller, acquiring a curvier tone as her hands and legs grew longer, as did her robes, though how she got her robes to morph along with her was something that he did not know.

"Only on very rare occasions like this one for example" said as he looked into her eyes "And Tonks, you really look beautiful."

The Black heir smiled. Looking beautiful was truly no problem for a metamorph, they could look like anything they wished, changing their features at a mere whim, and she was one of those truly rare metamorphs who could change every aspect of her being, something that she had used to great advantage during her time in the serpents nest. Yet this form was the one that she donned when she was among those she trusted, and so she smiled at the compliment that she could tell was true, well that he believed was true.

"But I doubt that you're here simply to hear me compliment you, so what do you want?"

"War" she said "It's inevitable isn't it?"

"Inevitable…" Rafael replied "For now it does seem that way, though who exactly will be our opponent is not clear. War with Riddle…

"Riddle?"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle is the Half – Blood Dark Lord's original name" said Rafael watching Tonk's for a reaction. He was disappointed that one never came, well an amusing one anyway as he caught her eyes flash through a dozen different color's in rapid succession. Then again he shouldn't have expected one considering her reputation and the kind of girl she was, a Slytherin one.

"War with Riddle and his Death Eaters, should Harry fail to prevent him from returning, war with the Goblins, for as of right now, the only way we can see that will result in Riddle's end will also result in a declaration of war from Gringotts" Rafael replied "In fact we could even end up going to war with Britain and even the rest of the European union if several magic hating highly – ranked officers see the rise of our world and tries to start a war bring us down, though I personally hope that doesn't happen as I doubt that our world would survive a war with the rest of mankind."

"Are the muggles really that dangerous?"

"Imagine a first year student and imagine someone at the level of Voldemort and Dumbledore" said Rafael seriously "The wizarding world is equivalent to the first year, and before you say anything yes the difference between us is that great, and while I have no doubt that a few of us, will survive, our society as we know it is razed to the ground… but then again, they are not just simply dangerous. Their world is amazing, it is truly unique, I'm not saying that they don't have their bad sides, we all do, I am just saying that there are thing in that world will have even your eyes wide as they show you things that you could scarcely comprehend even in your wildest dreams, just like many them wouldn't comprehend our world in their wildest dreams."

"Can you – tell me more about them" Tonk's asked "Their world is one of the few subjects I have precious little information on, tell me wonders available in their world… and if they truly end up opposing us, tell me how we can beat them, or at the very least survive their assault."

"Harry is the one you should speak to when it comes to battles against them Tonks, and I doubt that even he has any idea on how to beat them should the two worlds go to war with each other" said Rafael "As for telling you about them, I think I can tell you about their world in general, though I think it would be better if I show you their world. If fact someday I think I will…"

"I'll hold you to that"

"I know you will…"

* * *

**Authors notes...**

**Yes yes I know that there are spelling mistakes in the previous chapters, and I will correct them... Just not anytime soon. Regardless of that little issue,**** I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter of HP: Reloaded.**

**Happy New Year Everybody, and Please, don't forget to Review**

**Rafaelout Out**


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